Christmas Things
by ExtremeSaucicity
Summary: AU. The holidays are just around the corner. Ally Dawson was prepared to spend it alone this year, as sad as that sounds. She was not, however, prepared for her new, attractive blond neighbor suddenly taking an interest in her life.
1. Chapter 1

So this is dedicated to Teresa, who wanted a Christmas fic. I don't know how this went from a planned one-shot of 9-12 pages to a SPRAWLING MESS of 80 plus pages, but I'm pretty happy with it overall, so hopefully you will be, too.

Anyway, you all should thank her for this. Whether you like it or not. But hopefully you guys like it.

And shout-out to the lovely Miss-Rainy-Skies for assuring me that this wasn't complete crap and helping me out whenever I got stuck.

Disclaimer: If I owned Austin and Ally, I'd make them solve crimes and catch bad guys in a hilarious new buddy cop show. Austin would play good cop and Ally would play bad cop and while they would have the lowest solved crime rate ever, they'd look so smokin' hot in aviators, it wouldn't even matter.

I'd call it _Handcuffs and Handguns_.

* * *

Ally sighs and continues her steady pace down the sidewalk, making a point to stare directly ahead. She makes sure not to look into any of the windows that pass by, all decorated with holiday cheer.

Yes, it's the Christmas season, but she doesn't need that constant reminder, alright? Besides, all those windows are starting to blur together, they look so similar. Blankets of white fluff to imitate pristine snow, flashes and pops of bright colors to represent a different array of presents, and, of course, the pièce de résistance—the decked out, evergreen Christmas tree.

Same thing, year in, year out.

She continues her ignorance of the holiday season, now about half a block away from her apartment building. She checks her watch and hurries her pace a little, wanting nothing more than to get back home and relax into her couch. Sadly, she's a bit too tired to finish reading her current book, but maybe some mindless TV won't be so bad.

At this point, she's reached the apartment lobby and turns down a hallway, toward the elevators. She prefers the stairs, but not tonight, not when she had been on her feet all day and had to listen to Christmas song after Christmas song at work. It doesn't help that she lives on the fifth floor, either. She's just glad that a Sunday meant shorter hours co-managing Sonic Boom with her father.

The weary brunette waits semi-impatiently for the elevator doors to open and has to hold back an annoyed _Finally! _when they do. She gets in, presses the appropriately numbered button and leans against the back of the enclosed space. She rests her head back with closed eyes, sighs tiredly, and tries to relax for the rest of the elevator ride.

"Hey, hey! Hold up!" a masculine voice shouts, ruining her peace of mind.

Her eyes snap open and she gives a startled gasp as two strong hands stop the doors from fully closing. A loud grunt sounds, and the hands grip the doors tightly, pushing them apart, before they automatically open the rest of the way.

A relieved sigh escapes and a blond, young man steps into the lift with her. He turns to the rows of buttons and his finger hovers over the already lit up five. He gives an amused hum and turns to her with a bright smile. "I see we're headed to the same floor," he laughs.

She blinks at him rapidly and shrugs mechanically. "Um, I guess," she mutters, sliding away from him, not keen on making small talk. She focuses on the doors as they close with a tiny _ding!_

She had seen him around a few times; after all, he only lives a few doors down from hers. She never caught a name, though. Dustin? Justin? Something along those lines, maybe. But they've exchanged pleasantries before and he seemed friendly enough. He'd moved in a few weeks back and the majority of the female residents _still_ fluttered around him like harebrained school girls.

Ally wasn't blind, mind you. Oh no, she's clearly noticed his always carefully disheveled hair, his bright brown eyes that always seemed to gleam and spark with well intentioned mischief, and his very obviously toned—wait. Where is she going with this again?

Oh, right. Yes. He's _very_ attractive.

But she's a twenty-three year old young woman, and she's not about to revert back and have a high schoolesque crush _now_, thank you very much.

That's what she tells herself, anyway, as the elevator continues the slow climb upward.

She starts to feel his gaze on her, but she stares resolutely ahead, still not interested in making any sort of small talk. He, however, seems to have other ideas in mind.

"So! You're 503, right?"

She's honestly surprised. She didn't think he knew her exact apartment number and she's not even sure if she knows his. "Yep, that's my given name," she replies quietly, keeping the surprise out of her voice. But then she shoots him a forced smile to know she's joking. For the most part.

"Aha! Thought I've seen you around," he chuckles. "Would've been awkward if I was wrong," he adds sheepishly.

She gives him a pained nod and turns back to the steel doors.

"You know, I don't think we've ever formally met. I'm Austin," he says, holding out a hand in a friendly manner.

She hesitates as she looks at him again, since she's never imagined herself becoming friendly or familiar with her hot neighbor. But he's looking at her with a boyish grin and bright eyes and she sighs resignedly, reaching over to shake his hand. "Ally," she finally says.

His grin widens and he releases his grip after an appropriate time. "So, Ally... um," and then he stops, suddenly struggling to find something to say. "Uh..."

Ally blinks at him bemusedly. She takes in his blank face for a second. "Are you... always this bad at small talk?"

He flinches and looks sheepish again. "Uh, I just realized I didn't know anything about you..." he chuckles nervously.

The elevator doors _ding_ and open up. Ally steps out almost immediately. She turns to Austin and gives him a quick wave. "Well, uh, I guess I'll see you around?" she says, mostly to be polite.

He follows her and nods. "Yeah, sounds good," he agrees with a grin.

Yet, strangely enough, he falls into step beside her. She gives him a confused look as they walk more than a few paces together in silence.

He notices the strange look she gives him and he raises an eyebrow at her. "You're 503, all the way at the end of the hall, and I'm 508, which is... right here," he says, stopping and pointing at the bronze number on his door. A Christmas wreath decorates his door, just inches below the number. His eyebrow arches higher and he shakes his head at her. "You didn't know my apartment number, did you?" he asks in a mock-hurt tone.

Now it's her turn to adopt a sheepish look. "Um, can't say that I did," she admits.

He chuckles and tilts his head at her. "Well, aren't we the worst neighbors?"

A perfect eyebrow arches itself. "Oh?" she asks challengingly. "And like you know everyone on this floor?"

She's been living in the apartment complex for eight months and it took her a long, long time to meet everybody on her floor. Austin has been here, what, two months? _Tops?_ And while she has no doubt that the female residents have probably all introduced themselves, most of the male residents aren't particularly keen on making friends.

He gives her a smug smirk and holds up a finger. "501, Mrs. Parkerson, very sweet elderly woman. 502, Jason Webber, quiet, likes to keep to himself. 503, Ally..." he trails off and raises an expectant eyebrow at her.

"Dawson," she supplies crisply.

He gives her a charming nod and continues counting on his fingers, "Right. 503, the lovely Miss Ally Dawson." His smirk widens as he notices the small blush coloring her cheeks from his compliment. "504, Mr. Acker, grumpy old man, constantly keeping up with volume control. 505, Mrs. Anders, rather... uh, _handsy_ whenever we run into each other..." He pauses, shaking off a look of mild horror.

Ally can't help it and is too late in stifling her giggles at this new found fact.

He gives her a dry look. "_You_ try fending off the sexual advances of a sixty-three year-old woman."

Her giggles are rapidly multiplying and she's nearly doubling over from the mental image of Mrs. Anders, with her crudely painted on makeup and strangely colored, flame-red hair, trying to seduce a thoroughly horrified-looking Austin.

"I don't appreciate you giggling over these very traumatic events, Miss Dawson." But his lips are quirking into a smile and he has to fight back a round of his own laughter.

"S—sorry!" she gasps, waving a hand at him. After her giggling subsides, she shakes her head at him. "It's just... I remember how she was before you moved in. And she was, uh... let's just say she regained some of her youth, when you came into the picture." She bites at her bottom lip and her eyes are glittering with mirth.

He winces. "How delightful," he mutters wryly. And then a look of concentration clouds his eyes. "Hm, where was I? Oh, yeah! 506—"

"Ah, ah! I get it!" she interrupts with a roll of her eyes. "You're a wonderful, friendly neighbor," she says sarcastically. She places a hand gently over his to stop his counting.

He stares at their conjoined hands for a second and it causes her to quickly snatch hers back, bringing it up to awkwardly fiddle with her hair. His stare turns into amusement as he silently regards her.

She clears her throat with a dainty cough. "Well, uh, I guess I'll just be on my way, then."

Austin gives her a soft smile. "Night, Miss Dawson," he murmurs, digging through his pockets for his keys.

Ally nods politely and continues further down the hall, digging through her purse for her own keys. She doesn't hear Austin open and close his door until she's about a step away from her door. She pauses mid-stride, a hand on the knob and throws one last look over her shoulder. She catches his Christmas wreath shaking slightly from the door opening and closing.

She smiles to herself as she unlocks her door.

* * *

"Sweetie, you look tired."

Ally covers up a yawn and blinks back some tired tears. She turns to her dad and forces an upbeat grin. "Nah, I'm fine!" Lester gives her a skeptical look and Ally's grin wavers. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asks nervously.

"Ally, go home for the night," he says firmly. "I can close the store."

His daughter gives him an incredulous look. "Dad. Since when have you ever offered me a chance to go home early?" she scoffs.

He frowns at her. "Since now!"

Ally rolls her eyes and turns back to face the very nice flute display. She continues from where she left off counting all the instruments. "The year's almost over and we need to get the annual inventory done," she states promptly. "Besides, we only have about two hours left and—hey!" She glares at her father as he yanks the clipboard she'd been writing on right out of her hands. She makes cute, little grabby motions but he swiftly hides it behind his back.

Lester rolls his eyes at her. "Ally, you work harder than I do. You need a break! And it's the holidays! Haven't you got any plans or parties or... something?" There's a desperate and hopeful undercurrent to his tone. He walks back to the register and throws her clipboard underneath the counter.

The brunette sighs, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "I prefer working over partying, Dad. And besides, Christmas isn't even for another couple of days."

He looks at her curiously. "What _are_ your plans for this year, sweetie?"

Ally squirms uncomfortably under her father's worried gaze. Ally had always been rather quiet and mostly kept to herself growing up, therefore limiting her social circle. What little social life she had was pretty much killed by the time she hit her early twenties, choosing work and school over her friends constantly and consistently.

The only friend she still kept tabs on was Trish de la Rosa. And they had a Christmas tradition of baking sugar cookies—and by that, Ally meant that she did all the baking and Trish did most of the eating—an exchange of presents, and then a Home Alone rewatch while eating previously mentioned cookies and drinking eggnog. Sadly, this year, Trish would be spending the next three weeks with her boyfriend, Dez... somewhere that Trish said Dez refused to disclose.

Basically, in short, she doesn't really have a lot of options for Christmas this year. Her best friend is currently out of town and not to mention her father will be spending this year with his friends at some sort of History of Jazz convention down in Louisiana.

And while she'd come to terms with the fact that she'll be spending it alone this year, it's not like she can tell her dad that. He would just look at her with pity in his eyes and wonder where he went wrong, raising some sort of social pariah.

Her silence starts to unnerve Lester and he places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Sweetie, you do have plans for Christmas... right?"

Her father's hand on her shoulder causes her to jump and it also effectively snaps her out of her thoughts. "Yeah!" she laughs assuredly, waving a dismissive hand in a semi-crazed manner. "Baking sugar cookies and watching Home Alone! Like I always do with Trish!" she lies, glad that she's yet to mention her friend's vacation to her father.

_Minus Trish..._

Lester gives an overwhelmingly relieved sigh. "So you won't be spending it alone?"

She gives him a painfully forced smile and shakes her head. "No, no! Of course not!" Her laugh comes out sounding like she's teeter-tottering between sanity and mental instability.

Lester somehow doesn't seem to notice and joins in on her laughter. "I was so worried about you, honey! I mean, you're young and beautiful, but I never hear you talk about friends or going out and having fun!"

Ally flinches, not able to tell her dad that she's become something of a hermit over the past few years. "Yeeep," she says, dragging the word out and popping the 'p'.

"So, tell me, Ally," Lester starts with a sly smile, clearly fishing for some information. "Has there been anybody new in—"

"The answer hasn't changed since the last time you've asked me, Dad," she deadpans, interrupting him before he can embarrassingly ask about her complete and total lack of a love life. "Which was how long ago? Oh, that's right, _two days ago_."

He deflates. "Oh."

"Yep, still rockin' the spinster lifestyle," she continues on in deadpan.

"But, Ally, honey, don't you want someone _special_ to spend the holidays with? Trish is a great friend, but even she has a boyfriend she could be spending Christmas and then New Years with! It can all be very, very romantic, you know."

She just gives him a flat stare.

A look of conflict cross over his features and he frowns. "On one hand, I'm glad because you're my little girl and you clearly have standards. And I know you're a strong, independent woman... but on the other hand, I'm getting a bit worried..."

She splutters indignantly at Lester. "_Dad!_ I am _twenty-three_, okay? It's totally alright for me to be single right now," she reminds him angrily.

He looks at her in thoughtfully. "You know, I think Mrs. Raz from You Need Stitches?, the embroidery store, mentioned something about wanting to set you up with her son just the other day..."

Ally's jaw slides open and she looks at him in offended horror. "I _grew up_ with Randy Raz, okay, Dad?! He cut off a lock of my hair during nap time in pre-school and then _showed_ it to me when we were graduating from high school as seniors! _Seniors!_ He carried around a lock of my hair—" she pauses to grab a fistful of her brown hair, shaking it for extra emphasis "—_My hair!_ For over _ten years._ But he didn't just stop there, Dad! No, he told me he was showing it to me because he was_ in love with me._"

She ends her rant with one hand still fisted in her hair, shaking it vigorously and the other clutched to her chest in sheer, honest-to-God terror. A raggedy breath slowly exhales out of her as she wills herself to calm down.

Lester's eyes narrow in careful consideration. "... So I should tell Mrs. Raz that you're not interested in Randy?"

Her hands reach up and she rubs at her temples tiredly. "Okay, you know what? I'm going to take you up on that offer and leave early," she mumbles with a roll of her eyes.

Lester nods and watches her gather up her stuff from beneath the counter, just a light jacket and her purse. She strides over to him and plants a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Bye, Dad. I'll open the store tomorrow."

On her way out, she hears him calling after her, "Go out tonight! Just meet a good guy! Maybe you two could spend Christmas together! … New Years?"

Ally rolls her eyes again and lets out an irritated grunt as she waves a hand behind her head dismissively, practically stomping out of Sonic Boom at this point.

* * *

Ally taps her foot impatiently, practically willing the elevator doors to hurry up and open on her floor. She wants nothing more than to flop uselessly into her bed and bury herself under the covers until tomorrow morning when she has to be up for work. She sighs and runs an annoyed hand through her hair, doing her best to push all talk of Christmas—along with finding someone special to spend it with—out of her head.

Her father means well and she gets that, she does.

An image of Randy Raz holding up her hair at graduation flashes through her mind's eye and she palms her face with both hands, emitting a small whine.

He was going to set her up with him? Argh, she takes it back, he didn't mean well at all.

And that's how Austin finds her, face in her hands while making dying animal noises, when the elevator doors open on the fifth floor.

He blinks at the clearly distressed young woman. "Uh, rough day?" he asks wryly.

The whining comes to a sudden stop and she slowly lifts her head back up, hands flopping lifelessly down by her sides. She gives an aggravated sigh and gracefully steps out of the elevator. "You have no idea," she deadpans under her breath, continuing on her way.

Austin glances from the petite brunette walking away to the elevator doors and back. With a small smirk, he makes his final decision and abandons the elevator, hurrying to catch up to Ally.

Ally hears his thundering footsteps from behind her and frowns. She turns around just as the blond comes to a stop in front of her, both of them now standing in the middle of the long hallway. She raises an eyebrow bemusedly. "Can I help you?" she asks slowly, trying to keep her tone from sounding too curious.

His smirk stretches across his lips and he gives a nonchalant shrug. "You wanna talk about it?" he offers in a friendly manner. "Your rough day, I mean."

Her eyebrows jump up and she quickly becomes skeptical. Since when did guys just want to talk? Especially very attractive, flirty guys? Her eyes narrow at him and she crosses her arms. "Weren't you just stepping out?" she questions suspiciously, gesturing toward the elevators.

His confident smirk melts into a timid smile. "Uh, sorta. I just really needed to get away from Mrs. Anders. She's being particularly... needy today," he admits with a very visible wince. And then he rolls his eyes. "And on top of that, Stacy from 510's been hounding me all day, too."

"How tragic," she manages to choke out. It takes every ounce of will power she has to keep a straight face.

He gives her a pained look. "She's like a twenty-five year-old Mrs. Anders! I mean, I could totally outrun Mrs. Anders any day of the week but I don't think think I could ever outrun Stacy if she's desperate enough. Not even if she was wearing her six-inch heels," he says, shuddering slightly.

"Horrible," she agrees with a shaky nod.

"It's not funny!" he protests, his voice bordering on a whine.

Ally bites back an amused grin, but Austin can see the mirth glittering in her dark eyes, just like from the night before.

"No, no, you're right. Totally serious," Ally coughs out. She brings a small fist to her lips, trying madly to stifle her giggles.

He rolls his eyes, a wry smile on his lips. "Well? What do you say, neighbor? We can share our day's woes over some coffee?" His puppy-like eyes are shining brightly with hope and laughter as he starts to grin at her.

And then the giggling stops, a moment of quiet stills the air as Ally quickly becomes hesitant about the offer. "Look, Austin, it's getting kind of late, and I'm tired. So I'm just going to head home, okay?" she says softly.

The brightness is his eyes disappear and she shakes off the brief thought about how wrong it looks to see them so dull. He nods at her and forces a small smile. "Oh, right. Sorry, I, uh... I didn't mean to bother you," he mumbles, sounding a bit disappointed.

And then she feels like a jerk.

He waves at her and moves to turn back around to the elevators.

She watches him walk away, wincing at the sight. Her mouth opens and closes a few times and then she finally shouts out a hesitant, "W—wait! Austin? Austin!"

The blond stops a few feet away from the lift at the end of the hallway. He twists his head to look over his shoulder at her, curious.

All she can really do is gape at him soundlessly, alarmed and annoyed with herself.

He grins and an eyebrow raises. "Yes?" He sounds amused.

Her cheeks flush and her eyes are bouncing from wall to wall, unable to look him in the eye. "I... I don't know why I just called out your name like that," she admits, feeling a mix of horror and embarrassment. She turns around and hurries ahead, eyes trained on the bronze, familiar 503, a hand partially covering her face from his view. "I'm just gonna get to my apartment now, okay? Okay, bye!" she says, her words coming out and blending together in a nervous rush.

A merry laugh echoes through the hallway and Austin playfully slings an arm around her slim shoulders before she can make it much further than three or four steps, thanks to his long strides.

"Let's do coffee in your apartment," he suggests happily. "I'm tired of people knocking on my door all day," he then mutters with a roll of his eyes.

Ally wants very much to protest, and is seconds away from pleading momentary insanity. But the fight inside of her wilts away when she makes the mistake of focusing a second too long on his annoyingly handsome features.

"Fine," she gives in with a resigned sigh. "_Fine_."

He smirks down at her fondly, his eyes shining brightly once more, and she carefully ignores the small, nervous flop her stomach makes from the way he looks at her.

* * *

Ally watches Austin from the kitchen as she continues making their drinks. From her vantage point, she has a perfect view of his profile. He's sitting at her small dining table, absent-mindedly drumming his fingers across the top in a gentle rhythm. She notices his eyes scanning around the room, carefully studying everything in her modest apartment with a soft smile on his lips.

She remembers the look of surprise on his face when he noticed how sparsely decorated her living quarters are when he first stepped through the threshold. She sighs and tries not to let his curiosity bother her. Trish and her father are frequent guests, but she honestly can't remember the last time she's introduced her apartment to a _new_ visitor.

Jeez, that's really quite sad, isn't it?

Her brown waves bounce as she shakes herself out of it. She focuses on the two mugs of steaming hot chocolate. She'd decided to forgo the coffee, since she has to be up early the next morning. Austin had whole-heartedly agreed to the change, also noting that the hot beverage was incredibly fitting, given the holiday season.

Ally rummages through a drawer and pulls out two candy canes. She pulls off the plastic, and sticks one in each drink, mindful not to splash any of the hot liquid over the rim.

"Ready!" she calls lightly as she picks up a mug in each hand and carefully walks over to the table. She meets his happy grin with a wry smile as she slowly slides into the seat across from him. "Here," she says softly, handing him a yellow mug before her fingers curl around her red one. She hums in content as the warmth of her drink spreads from the mug and through her hands.

"Ooh, how fancy!" he laughs as he swirls his drink around with the classic red and white striped candy cane. He brings the cup to his lips and blows gently before taking a small sip. He pulls away with a loud _smack_ of his lips and sets down his drink on the table and continues messing with his candy stirrer in childish delight.

Ally can't help but think that all he's missing is a hot chocolate mustache to properly complete the look. She gives him a bemused grin and brings up her cup to hide her lips. "Jeez. You're just like a little kid," she murmurs teasingly with a gentle shake of her head.

Austin stops and raises an eyebrow at her. "I'll let that comment slide so I can thoroughly enjoy this fine cup of hot chocolate," he says smoothly, taking a longer drink.

Ally rolls her eyes and finally takes a sip of her own, eyes closing in near bliss.

"So, Ally," he starts after they spend a moment enjoying the silence and their hot chocolate.

She sets down her drink and raises an eyebrow at his inquisitive look. "Yes?"

"Tell me about your day," he says with an easy grin, opening his arms up in a welcoming sort of manner.

She groans and props an elbow onto the table and leans her cheek against her fist. "My dad's afraid of me dying alone with, like, a million cats or something," she explains in a hollow voice.

Austin nods slowly as he listens. "Uh-huh. Right," he says in an understanding, sympathetic manner. He purses his lips in thought. "So... can I have some back story here?" he asks with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

She rolls her eyes. "You make the occasion joke about being a spinster and your dad suddenly thinks you're going to die sad and alone," she snorts.

Austin blinks. "Well, _are_ you sad and alone?"

She gives him a fierce look. "No, I'm not," she states stubbornly. "It's like he's confusing the words 'strong and independent' with 'sad and alone'." She sighs and takes a drink from her hot chocolate. "I know my dad's just looking out for me, but him hovering so closely over my love life just stresses me out!"

He chuckles and shakes his head. "It sounds like you're trying to tell me that you had a rough day because your dad was looking out for you," he says pointedly as he brings his mug to his lips.

Ally winces and shoots Austin a heartfelt look. "I know. I know it sounds bad, but I just wish he'd back off for a bit, you know? I work practically every day with him, so it's not like I can really escape all his questions about my social life." And then her eyes widen as a sudden memory jolts through her. "And! Oh my God, Austin, he almost set me up with _Randy Raz_ today!"

His eyebrows jump up bemusedly and he shakes his head in mock fury. "Aw, man. I _hate_ that guy," he says, managing to sound overly vehement and deadly serious.

Ally blinks, confused as to how her blond companion could possibly know about her childhood semi-stalker. It takes her a second, but she soon realizes that he's joking with her. She laughs and leans over to playfully swat at his arm. "Shut up!"

He snickers and gestures for her to continue. Ally relays the rant she had given previously to her father, but in a much more calm and understated manner.

"Argh, he's awful," Ally finishes with a dramatic shudder.

Austin looks thoroughly horrified. "Oh man," he breathes, turning sympathetic eyes on her. "And I thought I had it bad with Mrs. Anders and Stacy."

"No, you do," Ally agrees wryly. "I hardly ever see Randy. He almost never stops by my store, whereas Mrs. Anders and Stacy live right here," she points out.

He tilts his head side to side contemplatively. "Call it even?" he grins.

Her expression mirrors his and she nods lightly. "Sounds fair."

He thinks back to her previous words and shakes his head incredulously. "And your dad almost helped set you up with that freakshow?"

"Yeeep," Ally replies, popping the 'p'.

Austin snorts in disbelief. "C'mon, your love life cannot be _that_ bad," he muses with a smirk.

Ally gives him a sheepish smile and takes an awkward, silent swig of her hot chocolate.

His eyebrows shoot up, nearly hidden behind his blond fringe. "... That bad?" He emits a low, drawn out whistle.

She gives him a pained look. "I... maybe, kinda, sorta, haven't been on a date with the same guy twice since, um, my last boyfriend?" she says, sounding so unsure that the whole disjointed sentence comes out as a more of a question than an actual coherent sentence.

Austin gives her a positively evil grin. "And when, pray tell, was that, Miss Dawson?"

She sinks pathetically into her seat, clutching her red mug to her chest and circling the rim with her middle finger. "Oh, you know..." she trails off. Her eyes are trained very steadily on the rapidly cooling liquid within.

"_Ally!_" he chuckles. "I promise I won't laugh at you!"

She sinks even lower into her seat. "Okay, okay! I was nineteen! I broke up with him because it wasn't working out during my freshman year of college."

He snorts and rolls his eyes. "And you're, like, what? Twenty-one now?"

She looks at him with furrowed brows. "Twenty-three," she corrects.

He genuinely looks surprised. His eyes roam up and down her frame. "Huh. Really?" He sounds intrigued.

Ally frowns, not sure whether she should be offended or flattered. "Well, how old are you?" she asks curiously.

"Twenty-four," he answers smoothly and he takes a long drink of his chocolate. He finishes it off and starts nibbling on the remainder of his candy cane.

She nods thoughtfully. "Yeah, I had you pegged at twenty-four or twenty-five." And then she crinkles her nose and raises an eyebrow at him. "You really thought that I was twenty-one?" She sounds mildly incredulous.

"So I'm bad at guessing ages! Don't judge me," he mutters. "C'mon, you probably get carded at bars all the time, right?"

Ally shrugs casually. "Wouldn't know. I don't go to bars," she says innocently as she takes a drink of her hot chocolate.

Austin raises an eyebrow, semi-impressed by her admission. "Wow. You don't date, you don't go to bars, so you obviously don't drink, either, and you work every day with your dad... Dude has, like, _nothing_ to worry about," he muses.

The brunette gives a loud sigh of relief. "Thank you!" she scoffs with a roll of her eyes. "I don't know why he's pushing so hard for me to go find some guy in time for Christmas," she mumbles irritably with a small pout.

Austin gives her a look of confusion. "What, you got some important Christmas dinner to attend?" And then the confusion quickly switches to excitement. "Wait! Do you need to find a fake boyfriend to come to your big family dinner?"

Ally stares at him like he's gone mentally deficient. "God, no! My life isn't some romantic comedy, jeez!" she snorts incredulously.

"Oh," Austin mutters dejectedly with a slight shrug.

She raises an eyebrow at him. "Wait," she says, almost giggling. "Were you... _disappointed _or something?"

"It always looks like fun in the movies!" he says defensively. "And besides! I'm willing to bet that I could totally charm the pants off of anyone in your family!" he says cockily, complete with a smug grin.

Ally stares at him flatly. "Argh, as much as I'd hate to admit it, my family would _love_ you. You're tall, funny, charming, and handsome." She rolls her eyes and makes an annoyed face as she takes another long drink.

He looks perplexed as he blinks owlishly at her. On one hand, she'd just complimented him, and on the other, she'd just made faces immediately after said compliments. "Uh, you make it sound like those are bad traits."

"They'll get attached," she explains simply. "If I brought someone like that home for the holidays, my family will stop at nothing until we're married. So even if I brought you over as a friend, they'd freak out and pester me until the end of time." She gives him a dry look. "Really, it'd just create more problems than anything else."

Austin chuckles whole-heartedly. "So, is that what you're doing for the holidays, then? Going to some giant family reunion?"

"Nope!" she answers lightly with a small smile.

He quirks an inquisitive eyebrow at her. "Then, what _are_ your plans for Christmas?"

"A yearly tradition. But it's top secret," she replies haughtily.

Pfft, like she's going to tell him that she's spending it alone, eating cookies, drinking eggnog, and watching Home Alone. _Alone._ Oh, right, she's already mentioned that part.

He stares at her flatly, completely unconvinced. "You're spending it alone, aren't you?"

She groans, deflating instantly. "Am I _that_ obvious?"

"Kinda," he admits with a small wrinkle of his nose.

She pouts and finishes off the rest of her hot chocolate. When she sets her cup down, she notices his delighted smirk and she casually asks, "What?" She moves to pop the candy cane into her mouth but then Austin suddenly starts snickering at her. "_What?_" she repeats, but it comes out impatiently this time around.

He smirks at her and gestures toward his own upper lip. "You've, uh, you've got a little something..." he laughs.

She gives a small, embarrassed gasp and drops the candy cane into her mug and quickly uses both hands to wipe off her chocolate mustache. "Is it gone?" she asks quietly.

Of _course_ she's the one that ends up with a chocolate mustache, instead of the semi-immature guy sitting across from her. How typical.

Austin is clearly having too much fun with this as he shakes his head, cackling at her. "Hang on, hang on," he whispers with an amused smirk, reaching over the table with his hand outstretched. His fingers wrap around her small chin and he uses his thumb to wipe the remainder of the foamy chocolate off the corner of her upper lip.

Ally sits there, stock still from the feeling of his thumb brushing gently at her lip. She's only able to breathe again when he pulls his hand away from her chin. Sadly, half a second later, she forgets that ability yet again as she watches Austin casually suck the chocolate off his thumb.

"Th—thanks." The word comes out as more of a desperate wheeze than actual English.

His eyebrows furrow at her, the pad of his thumb still placed against his teeth. He gives her a funny look before lowering his hand. "You okay, Ally? You, uh, look kinda red."

"Hey, look! We're both finished with our hot chocolate!" she laughs crazily, shooting up from her chair. She grabs both mugs and prances like an awkward baby gazelle into her kitchen. "Oh, would you look at the time! It's getting pretty late, isn't it? Maybe you should be heading home, Austin," she suggests in a nearly-shrill panic. She places both dirty mugs carefully into the sink, impulsively grabbing the candy cane from her mug.

Austin stands up from the table and turns to look at her through the kitchen window, obviously baffled by her sudden onslaught of insanity. "Uh, alright?" He politely pushes in his chair and makes it out of her dining area and through her living room.

Ally meets him in the middle of her living room and she follows behind him nervously until they reach her door. She opens her door for him and he steps through, turning around to properly face her.

"Thanks for having me over," he says sincerely with a warm smile.

By this time, Ally's calmed down a bit, thank God. "Well, you pretty much invited yourself over," she points out dryly.

He chuckles. "See you tomorrow?" he asks with hopeful eyes.

An affirmative leaves her mouth before she really has time to stop it and she can't even be mad at herself. Not when Austin's standing there, looking down at her with that affectionate grin and those sparkling brown eyes.

"Have a good night, Ally," he says softly before making his way down the hall.

She swallows nervously, fiddling with the cane in her hands. "You, too!" she calls after him shakily.

Ally closes the door and locks it, before spinning around and sliding down her door pathetically. She throws her head back with a _thud_ and crushes the candy cane between her teeth in frustration.


	2. Chapter 2

You delightful readers, you. The feedback for this fic has been beyond awesome so I wanted to thank you guys profusely for the support and all the wonderful reviews! Without further ado, here's the second chapter!

* * *

Tonight, despite how tired she is, Ally decides to forgo the elevators and use the stairs, determined to avoid running into her annoyingly attractive neighbor for the third time time in a row. And knowing her luck and his charming personality, he'd probably weasel his way into her apartment for another cup of hot chocolate.

She's going to have work up some sort of immunity to his ridiculous charisma. Maybe, like, save a vial of his tears or something?

_Argh, no, that's ridiculous_, she chides herself with a firm shake of her head.

Ally sighs and continues climbing the last flight of stairs leading up to her floor. To her immense pleasure, she's not even wheezing pathetically or having to pause and catch her breath, thanks to her preference for stairs most days, anyway. She smirks to herself, mentally patting her shoulder for being in shape and for a job well done.

It's the little things in life that make you happy, ya know?

Right, she needs to focus; she needs to make it from this door to her apartment, all the way at the end of the hall, without being seen by a certain blond fellow.

The brunette takes a deep, steadying breath, and slowly, quietly, pushes the door open. She stealthily peers around the side of the door frame, exhaling in relief at the empty hallway. She inches herself in front of the door, making sure to shut it soundlessly behind her.

She bites her bottom lip nervously and she pads determinedly forward, eyes bouncing back from wall to wall, making her look like a semi-deranged, over-active squirrel.

Unfortunately, she doesn't make it far—barely a step past Austin's own apartment—before the elevator behind her opens with a soft _ding _and an increasingly familiar voice shouts out her name cheerfully.

She stops dead in her tracks, eyes closing in pained failure, and a strangled noise of frustration rips from her throat.

_Mothereff—!_

Ally's shoulders droop in despair and she glances up at the ceiling, praying to the powers that be for patience. Well, she's mostly praying for his eyes to be less sparkly. Or maybe he's lost some of his teeth in an ice hockey accident, rendering his grin hideous instead of butterfly-inducing. Or maybe he'll randomly start balding in the middle of their next conversation.

Or maybe, if she's really lucky, he'll just start saying all the wrong things and everything that comes out of his mouth in the next few minutes will be complete donkey spittle.

Jeez, just _anything _that will make him less appealing.

She whirls around, steeling herself for anything he might have to say.

"Hey!" Austin grins excitedly. And then he holds up a plastic grocery bag. "I bought some hot chocolate and candy canes for my apartment. Figured the least I could do was return the favor from yesterday," he says with a laugh. "So are you busy tonight?" he asks enthusiastically with an adorable head tilt.

Well, that last option isn't going to be happening any time soon, is it? Or at all, ever, huh?

She stares at him blankly, trying to comprehend how one adult male could seriously be this adorable and endearing, while still somehow managing to effortlessly make every lady's panties drop within a two mile radius.

Not that she thinks that last thing. Just, you know, she's assuming from the way other female residents go on and on about him.

"Um, Ally?"

Austin's worried voice cuts through her bizarre train of thought and she quickly snaps herself out of it. "Yes?!" she blurts out in alarm, blinking rapidly.

He gives her an odd look, eyes roaming up and down her small frame. "You okay, there? You were kind of spacing out on me for a moment," he says, chuckling nervously.

She gives him a shaky smile. "Uh, no. No, I'm fine," she says reassuringly.

Austin doesn't really look like he believes her but decides to let it slide. "Well, if you're feeling up for it, I'll make us some hot chocolate?" he asks gently with an easy grin.

The young brunette wavers, opening and closing her mouth wordlessly. And finally, a soft, almost too-timid _Okay_ pours from her lips.

His entire face lights up and he gestures with his head for her to follow him. "Awesome," he chuckles, sounding almost relieved. He starts rummaging through his jacket for his keys once they reach his door. He stops for a second and then looks at her with a sheepish expression. "Um..."

Her eyebrows furrow as she looks back at him. "What?" Ally asks slowly, suddenly uneasy.

He gives a small wince and his sheepish expression grows. "My apartment's a little..."

"Messy?" she guesses with a quirked brow. At his embarrassed nod, she rolls her eyes and shoots him a little smirk. "God, you're such a typical _guy!_" she laughs.

Austin looks at her dryly. "Well, if you wanna wait ten minutes, I can shove everything under my bed and into my closet really fast," he jokes as he opens the door. He gestures for her to walk through first. "Ladies first," he says with an overly cheesy smile.

She rolls her eyes but gives him a half-hearted curtsey—much to Austin's delight, if his laugh is anything to go by—before walking through.

She steps into the living room and takes a moment to look around as Austin starts fiddling with his door. He's not wrong, it is a bit messy, but not terribly so. It's mostly clothes strewn all over his couch, a few items spilling onto the floor. She notices a tiny Christmas tree in the opposite corner of his living room, probably only reaching up to her thigh. She's honestly surprised, until she remembers the Christmas wreath hanging on his door, hinting at his penchant for Christmas decorations.

The layout of his place isn't much different from hers, but that's to be expected. His apartment's decorated with a sparse amount of furniture, all of it being rather modern. There's a decent sized TV across the black couch, obviously older, considering it wasn't a flat screen. She peers around the corner, trying to get a peek into his kitchen and dining area.

"You know, you can take a look around if you want," he laughs quietly into her ear as he walks up behind her quietly.

Ally gives a small gasp, jumping a bit in surprise. A hand flies to her chest and she whirls around to face him, guilt written all over her face. "S—sorry," she stutters. "Just curious."

He laughs again and flings his jacket over the back of his couch. "I've got no secrets," he smirks with a wink as he sets off into the kitchen, plastic bag in hand.

She blushes and coughs, walking around to look at him through the kitchen window. "So, uh, you don't have a table to sit at," she comments lightly as she glances around the area.

He looks up from the counter to grin apologetically at her. "Yeah, sorry. I've got two bar stools and there's always the couch," he replies with a nonchalant shrug.

She looks down and sure enough, there were two tucked underneath the counter. "Here's fine," she murmurs, pulling one of them out and sitting down. She slides off her jacket and drops it onto the carpeted floor along with her purse.

They fall into a comfortable silence as Austin heats up two mugs of milk in the microwave. "So!" He turns around to face her with a chipper expression. "How was your day?" he asks conversationally.

She gives a small snort and tiredly runs her fingers through her tousled waves. "Busy," she hums with a soft smile. "Instruments make for pretty awesome Christmas presents, I guess."

"A few of the best Christmas presents I ever got were instruments," he murmurs, nostalgia coloring his tone.

The microwave goes off and he turns back around to grab their mugs. Once he's placed them on the counter, he starts spooning the appropriate amount of coca powder into the milk.

"Like what?" she asks curiously as she watches him stir and mix the powder into the milk.

He shrugs. "Guitar, bass, drums, keyboard..." he trails off. "But when I moved out a few years back, I just grabbed my guitars. Everything else is stored away at my parents'."

"That's a shame," she says with a sympathetic glance.

"It's not like I can really set up a practice room here, anyway," he points out with a small sigh. "I mean, the noise complaints alone! Mr. Acker would blow a casket."

Ally snickers a little at that. "He'd stop at nothing until you were kicked out."

Austin shakes his head forlornly. "You play your guitar a few times and you make an immediate enemy." He looks at her and shrugs like _Eh, what can ya do? _with a soft smirk.

She bites back a smile and props an elbow onto the counter, hand cupping her chin. Her eyes drift down to the two mugs. "Is the hot chocolate done yet?"

He pauses in his stirring as he blinks at her. "Almost," he promises. And then he places both hands on the counter, leaning across the window to study her very, very closely. "So, the other day, I couldn't help but notice that your hot chocolate was missing a very important ingredient," he challenges with an arched eyebrow.

Ally's jaw drops and she looks at him, gobsmacked. She sits up straighter and her arm flops across the counter. "It wasn't missing anything! I'll have you know, Austin—" and then she blanks, realizing that she never caught a last name.

She places a knee on the seat of her bar stool to lift herself up and steadies her other foot on the bottom rung. She slams both palms down on the counter, mirroring his position as she leans in to meet him through the kitchen window, faces inches apart. "What's your last name?" she whispers conspiratorially.

"It's Moon," he whispers back without skipping a beat.

"I'll have you know, Austin _Moon_," she begins again in a raised voice, "that what you had yesterday was an incredibly _fine_ cup of hot chocolate! Complete with a gourmet candy cane! From the _dollar store_, no less!"

He responds to her narrowed eyes and adorable, pouty frown with his own two hands raised in mock surrender. "It was indeed an absolutely fine cup of hot chocolate, Miss Dawson. And I was lucky enough to have been able to enjoy it with very, _very_ lovely company," he pauses and looks down at her through half-lidded eyes, complete with a devilish smirk.

Her eyes widen a smidgen and a rosy hue color her normally pale cheeks.

"But!" he continues as he places his hands back on the counter, leaning in once again. "Here's where you went wrong," he chides with a condescending shake of his head.

Ally's brown eyes narrow challengingly once more. "Oh ho, I'd like to see where this is going."

His eyes drift away from hers for a second as he eyes the plastic bag still sitting next to him on the counter. He inches his fingers into the bag and pulls something out and hides it behind his back. Unfortunately, he's too fast and Ally doesn't catch the supposedly missing ingredient.

"What _is_ it?" she demands impatiently, leaning sideways just a bit, hoping maybe she'll be able to sneak a glimpse of it.

Austin bites his bottom lip excitedly and Ally has to hold back a snort of laughter because he resembles a semi-demented chipmunk.

"_Marshmallows!_" he roars with excited laughter as he pulls the bag out from behind his back.

Ally can no longer hold in her giggles and she slowly sinks back down onto her seat, covering her face with a hand, shoulders moving emphatically from laughing so hard. All that build up for _marshmallows?_ "Seriously?!" she breathes as she calms down.

He feigns a look of outrage at her laughter. "Hey! They're an important part of constructing the perfect cup of hot chocolate okay?" he cries defensively.

She purses her lips and points at the little tin can on the counter. "Austin, we spoon powder into a mug of warmed milk," she says pointedly with an arched brow. "We're, like, semi-cheaters."

"Shush!" he urges as he dumps a handful of mini marshmallows into each mug. He leans over and sets a black mug in front of her and places a candy cane down as well. He walks out from the kitchen with a matching mug in hand and a candy cane dangles from his lips.

Ally watches him as he sets the mug down and pulls out the other bar stool, plopping down onto the seat. They both silently unwrap their candy canes and start stirring their hot chocolates. She looks down to see some of the marshmallows already dissolving before carefully taking a sip.

Okay, so _maybe_ he has a point. Marshmallows are totally amazing in hot chocolate. But she had a tendency to snack on them whenever she's bored or hungry and she didn't always have time to go grocery shopping, anyway.

The only reason why she even has a small stash of candy canes is because she stole them off the Christmas Tree in Sonic Boom that, yes, her dad had gotten from the dollar store.

Austin quietly watches her take a drink with a small smirk. "Marshmallows, right?" he asks smugly.

She rolls her eyes as she sets her mug back down. She turns to face him and sighs. "Okay, so maybe you were kinda right. About the whole marshmallows thing. But! You're not getting that in writing and I'm never gonna repeat it, so..." she trails off. And then she shrugs at him, mock-apologetically.

His smirk widens. "Fair enough," he shrugs as he lifts the mug to his lips.

They lapse into a comfortable silence for a moment before he turns to look at her curiously. "Hey, Ally. I've been wondering something..."

Her eyebrows furrow and she pauses mid-sip. "Uh, yes?"

"So on a scale from one to Ebeneezer Scrooge, how much do you hate Christmas?" he questions innocently as he takes a casual drink.

She sputters at him madly, thumping at her chest to keep from choking on her own spit. "_What?_" Her brown eyes are about to bulge out of their sockets from his inquiry. "Pfft, I do _not_ hate Christmas! What makes you think I hate Christmas?!" she demands indignantly.

He lifts an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. "You don't have any Christmas decorations up, you're spending Christmas alone, and before we became friends, you were kiiinda surly, despite the holiday season and all the holiday cheer in the air," he says, ticking off his points on his fingers.

Ally rolls her eyes and props an elbow back onto the counter. She throws her chin into her hand, blowing a strand of hair out of her face in aggravation. "I don't _hate _Christmas," she repeats weakly as she turns to look at him.

He takes a long drink of his hot chocolate, patiently waiting for her to continue.

"I just—I don't know," she admits with another shrug. "It's... it's the same thing every single year and I guess I'm just tired of everything. All the same Christmas music and all the same decorations..." she trails off with a small sigh.

"Annnd...?"

She rolls her eyes. "Annnd I guess this year _doubly_ sucks because my dad's going to Louisiana and my best friend's going to be out of town and it all just kinda, really, _really_ sucks, you know?" Then she sighs again, but this time it's a lot louder and she feels like a huge weight's been lifted off her shoulders.

"Wow." He blinks. "You've been holding that in for a while, haven't you?" he asks as his eyebrows shoot up.

"Oh my god! You have no idea!" she mumbles with a shake of her head. "It's not like I can tell them, 'Wait! Don't go! Christmas is going to suck so much without you guys!' I mean, I don't want to guilt them into staying behind just for me." She takes a deep chug from her mug and then absent-mindedly stirs her candy cane around the small island of marshmallow fluff floating in the sea of her hot chocolate.

Ally abruptly stops and glares at him, suddenly defensive. "I don't mind being alone," she says quickly.

"Didn't think you did," he says carefully.

Her eyes dart away from his and back again. "But—"

"It's a bit harder when it's the holidays?" he interrupts understandingly.

"Argh! Yes. Thank you!" she says with a roll of her eyes, relaxing again.

He chuckles. "It's okay, I get it."

She's about to ask him what his plans are for Christmas when there's a loud knocking at his door. She blinks and turns toward the noise. "Are you expecting company?" she asks curiously, smiling at him. Upon seeing his absolutely frightened, paling face, the smile drops. "Uh, Austin?" she asks in a worried tone. She prods at him slightly with a finger. "You okay there?"

Austin gives her a pained look and shakes his head frantically. "Oh God. If it's Stacy again... Or Mrs. Anders... or even Candi..." He rolls his eyes and shudders momentarily.

Her eyebrows furrow. "Candi? With an 'i'? From the second floor?" she asks, mildly incredulous.

He smirks at her and waggles his eyebrows. "Jealous?"

"Not a chance. If you're into a girl with breasts bigger than her brain, then that's up to you," she snorts with disgust.

The knocking gets louder and more insistent.

Austin turns to look at his door and then back to a half-amused, half-exasperated Ally. "Hey, wait," he murmurs slowly, a smile relighting his face.

She stills and looks at his suddenly devious expression, rather confused. But then she quickly catches on. "_No!_" she hisses vehemently.

"Too bad!" he smirks, grabbing her by her upper arm and pulling her out of her seat.

"Gah!"

She stumbles along next to him as he guides her to the front door. "Austin—Austin! This is a bad—"

They're standing at his door and he's leaning over to unlock it. Just as he's twisting his doorknob, he throws an arm around her shoulders with so much force, she nearly doubles over. She glares at him and hurriedly spits her tasteless hair out of her mouth as he pulls her close as the door swings wide open.

A tall, slender woman quickly withdraws her hand from knocking on the sudden open space. She's pretty, but it's hard to tell whether it's from the make up or her natural looks, since there's more than a fair amount caked on her face. And her voluminous blond hair clearly came straight out of a bottle.

"Aus—" she starts, faltering as her eyes land on Ally and she's thrown for a loop, "—tin!" she continues in the same cheery and fake manner.

"And Ally!" the much shorter brunette sing-songs awkwardly. She seriously starts to contemplate the consequences of gnawing Austin's fingers off her shoulders to make a mad sprint down the hall to her own apartment.

_Damn, I don't have my keys!_

Well, there goes that plan.

"Hey, Morgan," Austin greets, a pleasant tone forced into his voice.

_Jeez_, just how many girls_ were_ there?!

Not that Ally Dawson's jealous, mind you. She's just concerned. For her neighbor's sake. Or whatever.

"I, um, didn't expect you to have company over," Morgan mutters thickly as she regards Ally, glaring darkly at the smaller woman.

"Oh, you know, Ally and I just really hit it off on our date tonight," Austin says casually, rubbing his hand up and down her upper arm sensually. "So I decided to invite her over."

Ally can almost re-taste the hot chocolate and marshmallows from mere moments ago.

Morgan's face looks like someone just told her that her tan was uneven and then, for further insult, pointed out her split ends. "You guys... are dating?" she cries, jaw dropping in shock.

The brunette doesn't really know what to do or what to say, so she just makes an indecipherable grunt of noise.

"What?" Morgan snaps, turning to look at her new enemy. "That wasn't even, like, human!"

"Oh God," Ally breathes inaudibly, looking down at her feet.

Austin decides to step in at this point, despite being thoroughly amused by his companion's slow break-down. "Ally's just shy about us. We've been hiding our relationship because she's embarrassed by me," he explains with a slow nod.

If possible, Morgan's jaw drops even further. "_She's_ embarrassed by _you?!_" she shrieks disbelievingly, eyes as wide as saucers.

He sighs sadly. "Yeah, she didn't think I was good-looking or smart enough for her, at first. I begged and begged, though. I did my damnedest to prove to her that I was good enough and now, she's lowered her standards enough to give me a chance." He quickly pulls her in even closer, so that her back is now to Morgan. One of her hands comes up to land on his chest so she can steady herself a bit and to keep her face from getting smashed into his hard, muscular chest. His other arm comes up to wrap around her petite frame, completing the awkward hug. "Isn't she the best?" he cries happily, looking down at her with moon eyes.

Ally looks up and glares at him. _I hate you_, she mouths, slowly and clearly for him to see and understand.

His response is to infuriatingly wink back at her.

"Well, then!" Morgan says in a clipped tone. "I guess I should just leave you two alone!" She takes a deep, shuddering breath and stomps off with as much dignity as she can in her skin tight bandage dress and high-heeled pumps.

Austin watches her leave with a sigh of relief.

"Is she gone?" Ally whispers quietly as she looks up at him.

He waits until Morgan gets into the elevator and then shuts his door. "Coast is clear," he murmurs, and he moves his hands until they're resting gently around her waist.

She makes a noise of disgust and brushes him off irritably. She walks to his couch and falls over backwards, knees hanging over the arm of the couch."You're the worst," she whines feebly. "Morgan's going to round up all the other girls in the apartment building and they're going to _kill_ me," she mutters, covering her face. "They're going to break into my room and kill me in my sleep," she moans pathetically.

Austin rolls his eyes and joins her on the couch. "You're exaggerating!" he laughs. "You'll be fine!" And then his laugh starts to subside as he begins thinking about his somewhat unofficial fanclub, consisting of the insane residents from the building. "Maybe..." he winces uncertainly as he looks down at her apologetically.

She jerks her hands down until her fingers are curled into tiny fists underneath her chin. She looks up and glares at him. "If they find my mangled body within the next few weeks, it's going to be all your fault," she says seriously.

He laughs again and studies her stern features. "I won't let them hurt you, okay? I'll do whatever they want; I'll even sleep with all of them if I have to," he jokes.

"You brave soul," Ally sighs dreamily, fluttering her eyelashes demurely.

"But please don't make me do that last one," he pleads desperately with a shudder.

She shakes her head. "Anything to keep me alive," she declares dramatically.

He rolls his eyes but nods understandingly. "Okay, okay," he murmurs lowly, reaching out to gently brush a strand of hair off her forehead, before his fingers slowly trail down to her cheek and curl into a loose fist, knuckles brushing against the side of her face lightly. "Anything to keep you alive," he promises quietly with a soft smirk.

Ally stills from the touch, eyes widening in mild alarm.

Austin quickly jerks his hand back and mumbles a small, barely audible, "Sorry."

They lock gazes until she tears her doe eyes away first. She clears her throat a little and sits up to hop off the couch. She turns back to face him and takes a step back, lowering herself into an awkward lunging position. "Well, I guess I should be going!" she says with a nervous, pitchy laugh as she jerks a thumb behind her shoulder repeatedly. "It's, uh, it's getting late! Or whatever," she whispers the last part under her breath.

He looks at her bemusedly and then chuckles. "Okay," he says with a small grin.

"Great!" And then she loudly claps her hands together jumps back up into a standing position, turning back around to face his door. "I'll just let myself out!"

"Sounds good," he drawls lazily, leaning back into his couch with a smirk, waiting for her to realize one important detail.

She makes it to his door and is back within a few seconds. "I forgot—"

"Your jacket, purse, and keys?" he snickers, looking at her with a brow arched in amusement.

Ally gapes at him soundlessly and red blooms across her cheeks. "Shut up," she manages dejectedly as she goes to retrieve her things.

In this time, Austin gets up off the couch and waits for her by the door, hands in his pocket as he whistles merrily. He stops and grins when she's back at the door, this time with the appropriate items in hand. "Got everything?" he teases lightly.

"Shut up," she repeats, blushing again.

He chuckles and opens the door for her. She steps through and is about to wave good-bye when he follows, closing the door behind them with a tiny _click_. She looks at him, confusion in her eyes.

He shrugs and grins at her. "I've got to make sure none of the crazies get to you before you can make it to your apartment, right?"

"Oh, right," she says with a shaky smile.

They walk in an easy, comfortable silence until they reach her apartment door. Her keys are already in hand so it only takes her a few seconds to open the door. She turns to him with a shy smile. "Uh, thanks, Austin, for having me over."

"Thanks for being my fake girlfriend," he shoots back with a dirty grin.

Ally's smile disappears and she gives a groan of aggravation. "You're still the worst," she mumbles with a roll of her eyes as she steps into her apartment.

"Have a good night, Ally," he chuckles softly before she can fully shut the door.

The sound of his voice causes her to stop and she looks up at him through the small crack from her door and the doorway. "Night, Austin," she says quietly with a small smile before shutting the door all the way.

* * *

"And Ally, don't forget to—"

"Got it."

"But seriously, it's—"

"Almost done with it, anyway."

"What about the—?"

"Sent it off yesterday before I left."

"Am I forgetting—?"

"Only a hug from the best daughter in the world before you leave for your trip," Ally interrupts casually as she walks up to her father. Her arms are opened wide and there's a sincere smile on her lips.

Lester finally seems to relax as he opens up his arms to wrap around his daughter. "I'll miss you," he murmurs, kissing her on the temple.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drop you off at the airport?" she sighs sadly.

"Nah, Marvin's gonna pick me up on the way, sweetie. Besides, tomorrow's Christmas Eve! I don't want you waking up at four in the morning just to drop me off," he says.

"Good ole Marv," she giggles. She pulls back a bit and grins up at him. "Have a safe trip and have a bunch of fun, okay?"

"I'll bring you back something cool," he chuckles as he lets go. He grabs his stuff from under the counter and looks at her with concern in his tired eyes.

Ally looks at him with furrowed brows. "What...?" she asks uneasily.

"I know you're spending Christmas alone and—"

Her jaw drops. "I can_not_ be that transparent!" she sputters indignantly, remembering back to when Austin quickly saw through her.

Lester rolls his eyes and looks at her. "Look, if you want to spend it alone, that's fine! I forget sometimes that you practically raised yourself and you've always been incredibly independent and I promise I'll stop hounding you about your social life, okay?"

And for a tiny, mortifying moment, she almost let it slip that she's been hanging out with Austin, who also happens to be an incredibly attractive guy around her age, just to get her father off her case. But she quickly shakes off that absolutely asinine idea.

Oh man, imagine all the questions _that_ little fact would open up.

"I don't believe you," she snorts instead.

Her father rolls his eyes and amends himself. "I'll _try_ to stop hounding you about your social life and love life all the time, okay?"

"Better," she grins as she leans in for another hug.

He gives her a peck on the cheek and pulls away, finally making his exit. "Bye, sweetie!"

"Bye, Dad!" she calls with a final wave, feeling a small pang of sadness in her chest as she watches him go, returning her wave.

* * *

Ally makes her way toward the elevators down the hall once she enters the apartment building, plastic bags in hand thanks to a quick trip to the grocery store. She had stopped by after work, making sure to buy all the necessary ingredients for sugar cookies and eggnog.

Also, she may have stocked up on marshmallows, but they're strictly for her. And it wasn't like she walked by them three times, fully intending to pass them by before an image of Austin excitedly holding up a bag of marshmallows finally made her impulsively grab them and throw them into her shopping basket.

Plus, she liked to snack on them, remember? Austin totally had no influence over her decision, whatsoever.

"Oh my _God_, I am losing my _mind_," she mutters to herself irritably as she jabs at the elevator button with more force than necessary.

She's not sure how she feels about her current standing point with Austin. She'd be lying if she said she didn't like him at least a little bit. But the thing is, she doesn't particularly _want_ to like him. She happens to like her life uncomplicated and mess-free. Crushing on her wildly popular neighbor would most likely end all of that. Not to mention the unnecessary added stress and worrying about his feelings on the whole matter as well.

Like, what if he doesn't even really _like_ her like that?

Dear God, this was all so elementary school and therefore, a complete waste of her time.

Maybe seeing him too much in such a short amount of time was messing with her, as well. To be honest, she can't quite remember the last time she really spent time with anyone except Trish, Dez, or her father. Maybe she just needs to make more friends and meet new people. And it didn't help when you mix in Austin's good looks and ridiculous charm.

She's about to impatiently jab at the button again when the doors finally open up.

The elevator is empty and she breathes in relief, ignoring the tiny, miniscule fleeting feeling of disappointment. She steps in and presses the number five and she keeps an eye on the hallway until the doors fully close.

So far, so good, right?

When she makes it to the fifth floor, she's almost positive that she'll run into his smirking face, but the doors open to an incredibly empty hallway.

"Wha-at? No way," she whispers to herself, somewhat incredulously, as she blinks at the open space. "Awesome," she smiles to herself as she steps off.

This quickly changes, however, the second she sees a huddle of women waiting outside her apartment door, banging at her door.

"Oh, God. Less awesome. _Less awesome_," she hisses to herself frantically, eyes darting around as panic starts to fill her very being.

She contemplates between the stairs and the elevator but then realizes that either route won't help, anyway, because then _where would she go?_

Besides, it's only a matter of time before they give up and take to the stairs or the elevator and then _BAM! _her missing body will be all over the news the very next day.

And she just did her grocery shopping, too!

She starts repeatedly chanting to herself that tonight's the night she's going to die when one last, final idea pops into her head.

Ally tip toes to Austin's door and starts knocking as quickly as she can without being too loud, continuing to look over her shoulder to make sure the fanclub's still trying her door. She's practically bouncing up and down in desperate hope for him to open the door as soon as possible.

"_Oh my God,"_ she whimpers to herself as she hears one of the girls loudly yelling that they should just give up and leave already. Her knocking doesn't get any louder but it does become much more rapid.

"How can I help you?!" Austin asks in a clipped, even tone through gritted teeth as the door finally flies open and he's glaring at her with a smile of obviously forced pleasantry. The look drops as soon as he registers that it's just Ally. "Wha—?"

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she squeals in relief.

He blinks at her, clearly confused. "Ally?" he says, completely bewildered. "What's going—?"

"Let me in!" she whispers, sounding rather frazzled. She looks over her shoulder and squeaks as the girls look like they're finally about to give up and start moving down the hall. She takes advantage of her small frame and shoulders her way through, barely having to duck under his arm as she makes her way into his apartment.

"Whoa!" he exclaims as he watches her force her way into his apartment. He turns around to face her, still bewildered. "Have you gone absolutely mental?" he asks in a worried tone as she sets her things on his counter and runs her hands over her face.

She shakes her head in a terrified manner and points a shaky finger outside. "Go out there and look at my apartment," she explains. "But don't let them see you!" she quickly adds.

"What?" he demands, sounding even more confused than before. At her empathetic pointing, he rolls his eyes and moves to peer out around his door. "Oh my God," he gasps as he quickly shuts his door and turns around, sprawling his body against it dramatically.

Ally gives him a fierce look and gestures toward him angrily. "This is all your fault," she growls.

He rolls his eyes again once he gets the chance to calm down a bit. "They've been bothering me all day," he admits with a sigh. "Didn't realize that the rumor would spread so fast, but I guess we can thank Morgan for that."

"Yay, Morgan!" Ally cheers sarcastically and an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Now they're gonna be bothering me, too, thanks to you!" she complains with a pout and an irritated cross of her arms.

"Sorry," he winces sympathetically.

"I'm using your fridge for my groceries," she suddenly mutters under her breath as she unloads her groceries with a pout. She gives him a glare to make sure he doesn't question her or argue with her.

He blinks at her. "Um... okay?"

"Well?" she presses as she starts putting whatever needs to be refrigerated away. "What have they been asking you?" she continues as she finishes putting everything into his fridge. She moves to sit on his couch after she shuts the door. She takes off her jacket and lays it across the back of his couch before sitting down.

Austin strides over to join her. "Oh, you know..." he says with a small cough, trailing off awkwardly as he refuses to meet her eyes.

She sharply stabs at his chest with a finger. "What did they say?" she demands as she glares at him.

He winces and rubs at the newly bruised area as casually and as manly as he can. "C'mon, Ally, they're just gossipy, meddling, semi-desperate idiots. It doesn't matter."

Ally cocks her head to the side and stares at him flatly. "They don't think I'm good enough for you, do they?" she asks humorlessly with a high brow.

"Wha-at?" he chuckles nervously, eyes darting around his living room in a highly suspicious manner. "What makes you think—yeah, they kinda do," he finishes with a deep sigh.

She starts to laugh, loudly and genuinely, as she leans back into his couch. "This is all your fault," she repeats as her laughter slowly starts to subside.

He blinks at her, an eyebrow rising. "You're... not mad?" He finally feels himself relaxing as he leans against the couch on his side as he studies her closely. As he continues watching her laugh, he can feel the corners of his lips twitching upward.

She shrugs and turns to look at him, a soft smile on her lips. "I'm sure I'll be able to look back on this and laugh one day. I mean, right now, I'm mostly terrified, but eh," she finishes saying this with another shrug and a wrinkle of her nose.

Austin ducks his head, chuckling a little, before moving back up to look at her. "Well, good. Because it would seriously suck if you were mad at me for that little stunt," he admits with a small smile.

"But we agree to never do that again," she says firmly with a finger pointed menacingly at him. "Because it was stupid and it will get your neighbor killed, which is bad manners between neighbors. And I know how important it is for you to be a good neighbor with good manners," she ends her little speech with her eyes narrowed in a threatening manner.

He rolls his eyes. "Alright, alright," he concedes. "And I promise I'll try to get them off your back, okay? I am really sorry about that," he apologizes. "I didn't think they'd drag you into it."

She snorts and looks at him incredulously. "What, did you really think they'd leave you alone if you had a girlfriend?"

"I was really hoping so..." he mumbles as he scratches at the back of his head.

"Well, good luck to you and your amazing ability to attract crazies," she smirks as she reaches over and pats him on the shoulder. "It's a wonder why you're still single," she jokes with a shake of her head.

"Thank you. I can tell you really care," he says in a monotone voice as he eyes the hand on his shoulder with a flat stare.

She clicks her tongue and shoots a pair of finger guns at him, complete with a wink of an eye. "No problem, buddy," she says with a sly grin.

Austin stares at her in stunned silence, doing his best to keep the laughter from bubbling out of his throat. "Wow. That was... is that why you haven't been on a date in a while?" he jokes with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably," she chuckles.

"I bet Randy Raz would like that move," Austin snickers with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

"Oh, gross!" she boos as she shoves him into the couch's arm, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Don't make me throw up on your carpet," she says sarcastically.

Austin's still laughing as he leans back comfortably into the corner of his couch. As his laughing subsides, he lifts up his legs and settles them into Ally's lap.

"Rude!" she comments as she moves to shove them off.

"Whoops!" he shoots back as he lifts his legs up so Ally's pushing aside air and then he quickly drops them back down, pinning her arms to her thighs.

She rolls her eyes and gives a little huff as she wiggles her arms free and lets them flop over his shins. "I'm not massaging your feet," she deadpans with a dangerous upwards quirk of an eyebrow.

"What a disappointing let down," he sighs exaggeratedly with a pout.

"Comfy?" she asks tersely as she crosses her arms.

"Very much so, yes," he smirks as he reaches up and laces his fingers on the back of his head. "Thank you for kindly lending me your lap," he says with as much fake sincerity as he can muster into his voice.

She gives a small snort of laughter and she shakes her head. "You're such an idiot," she mutters.

Austin puts on a look of mock offense. "I welcome you into my apartment, let you sit your peasant-ass upon my royal couch, and you insult me with your words?"

Ally is doing her best to keep a straight face as he shakes his head in disgusted horror.

"Where are your manners, Dawson?" he barks in a demanding tone. "Were you raised by _wolves?_"

And that's when she loses it, a mad case of giggles erupting from her throat. Her shoulders start to shake and she brings a hand up to cover her mouth.

"Did I give you permission to laugh at me?" he asks in the same offended manner. He keeps a straight face but the very corners of his lips are twitching just a hair as he watches her fall into his side, still giggling and laughing.

Austin finally cracks a smile as he looks down at her. "You okay there?" he snickers.

She grabs the pillow next to her and reaches over to whack him in the face. "You're so ridiculous!" she says with a snort of laughter as he gives a disgruntled grunt from the pillow in his face.

He grabs the pillow from his face and says, "Hey, lift your head for a second."

"Why?" she asks, but does so anyway.

He places it under her head and on his midsection. He watches as she relaxes into the pillow and sighs, "See, I am the best host ever and you just sit there and insult me."

Ally rolls her eyes but wiggles around, trying to get into a comfortable position between the back of the couch and Austin's body. "Thank you, oh kind host," she comments sarcastically as she finally stops moving, "for letting me sit my peasant-ass upon your royal couch."

"You're welcome," he coos as he reaches down to pat her cheek condescendingly.

"Hey!" Ally smacks his hand away from her face irritably, but he just moves it to her upper arm, knuckles resting gently against her skin.

She blushes at the innocent contact and considers shifting away from his hand, but she's finally settled into comfortable position and, clearly, so has he. So why ruin things? She should just leave it alone, right?

Oh God, she's reverting back to a high school girl, isn't she?

She swallows and decides to focus on anything else in his living room. Especially when she feels him brushing his knuckles back and forth against her skin.

_Oh boy..._

She swallows nervously and hesitates for a moment, before calling his name.

"Yeah?" he hums contentedly.

"They've got to be gone at this point, right?" she whispers, not knowing what else to say.

He groans loudly and she bites her lip to hold back a chuckle. "Do not make me go check. I am way too comfortable right now," he whines.

She twists her body around so she's lying mostly on her stomach, hands folded underneath her chin. She rolls her eyes at him and says, "Fine. Then _I'll_ go check."

"Don't die," he chirps as she ruffles her hair fondly, making sure to purposefully mess it up.

Once he's finished, she looks up at her mussed up hair and frowns at him. "You frustrate me," she states flatly.

"Okay, okay, I'll make you presentable," Austin sighs with an eye roll. And then he reaches up and gently runs his fingers through her wavy hair, smoothing out the kinks and flyaways he had caused. He finishes by tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "There," he whispers gruffly, and his eyes dart to hers, brown meeting brown. "Good as new."

Her eyelids flutter for a moment because his fingers are still lingering behind her ear and in her hair. "Th—thanks," she murmurs shakily, damning the butterflies in her stomach and the way her voice so obviously shook.

"No problem," he says quietly, finally pulling his hand away.

She gives him a soft, timid smile, and is perfectly content with staying where she is for a few more moments, when there's a sudden knock at his door.

Ally buries her face into the pillow as Austin throws his head back, a loud, irritated groan emitting from his throat. He moves his legs off hers and his feet hit the floor. "Well, let's go face the music together," he mutters, threading his fingers through her hair softly once again.

"Don't these girls have _lives?!_" she yells exasperatedly, the pillow muffling her voice. Her head pops back up and she looks at him, confused and curious. "What is it about you that is so damn fascinating that these girls can't leave you alone?" she demands.

He clears his throat, shifting uneasily. "You answer the door shirtless and in a towel one time... and you can never live it down, apparently," he coughs uneasily.

Ally's jaw drops and a smattering of red color her cheeks. She looks down at his chest and blinks.

Yeah, okay, she kinda gets it now.

"Oh," she manages weakly.

The knocking gets louder and more frantic. The sound snaps Ally out of her slight daze and she quickly sits up and jumps off the couch.

"Come with me," he whines with a pout as he follows suit.

She shakes her head vehemently. "No way! We agreed to never do this again," she reminds him with a cross of her arms. "Why don't you just ignore them?" she suggests with a shrug.

He looks at her. "Uh, Ally, that would be rude. I mean, I was kidding before, but were you really raised by wolves?"

Ally stares at him flatly as she shoves him a bit. "Go answer your door," she says in a monotone voice.

Austin wrinkles his nose in great displeasure as he makes his way to the entrance. "Oh, hey, Roxy," he greets with a mild sigh as he opens the door.

Ally blinks at the name. She doesn't think she's ever even met a Roxy. She rolls her eyes and tip toes to the wall nearest to the hallway, leans against it as she eavesdrops on the conversation.

"Austin, are you really seeing someone?"

"Uh."

"And is it really that weird, brunette girl?"

"Um."

"Isn't her name, like, Sally or something?"

"Ally."

"_Oh my God, so it's true?_" comes Roxy's banshee-like wailing.

Ally has to hold back a snort of amusement from her hiding spot.

"Wait, what? It's not—"

Ally has to clap both hands over her mouth to smother her laugh.

"... Annnd she's gone. Well, okay, then," Austin mutters, sounding half-frightened and half-confused. He shuts the door and makes it back into the living room, raising an eyebrow at Ally trying to reign in her laughter.

"Sorry," she chokes out, not sounding apologetic at all.

Austin just stares at her blankly. "She still thinks we're dating," he points out.

She bites on her bottom lip and nods. "I know, but holy _crap_, are they all that stupid?"

He rolls his eyes. "I'm just gonna let them assume whatever they want and let their imaginations run rampant," he says tiredly.

She smacks the back of her hand at his chest. "Hey! Tell them the truth. Otherwise, our stories won't match up," she frowns.

"Argh, fine! But I'm making up some epic break up story so it sounds like I'm too broken-of-a-man to move on," he warns.

"Awesome! Give me your notes when you come up with the perfect story!" she says sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. She glances at his clock and notices that it's nearing 11:30, so she sighs. "Well, I've got to get home." She grabs her jacket and slips it on.

"I'll walk you," he offers.

She smiles at him. "You don't have to, you know," she says lightly, making her way to his fridge. "Hang on, I've got to get my groceries."

He follows her and leans against the freezer door, watching her pull out a half-gallon of milk, lunch meat, some juice, and a few other things. "I don't mind walking you. It's, what, four, five doors down?" he snorts.

She pauses bagging up all her food. "Uh, _exactly_," she laughs. "I think I can make it safely," she smirks.

He scratches the back of his neck and clears his throat a little. "Fine, but I _want_ to," he admits softly, suddenly looking shy and uncertain.

Ally blinks in surprise. She doesn't think she's ever seen him look _shy _in front of her before. Not really, anyway. She's become accustomed to his self-assured smirk and confident attitude from their previous encounters.

Austin winces and mistakes her silence for a no. "Uh, sorry, didn't mean to make things weird or awkward for you. I'll, uh, just go sit—"

"I'm ready to go! Coming with?" she interrupts with a cheeky grin, saving him from further embarrassment. She turns to him after she gathers up all her stuff.

He finally relaxes and, with that familiar smirk present on his face again, he quickly grabs the plastic bags out of her hands, ignoring her cries of protest. "Whoops!"

"Hey!" she makes grabby hands at her groceries, but he lifts them high over her head, taking obvious advantage of his height. She considers jumping up for them, but realizes that she'd rather not embarrass herself. "You suck," she mumbles.

He chuckles at her. "C'mon," he says with a grin, moving toward the entrance. He watches her as she shoulders her purse with a dejected pout, meeting him door. He shifts all the bags to one hand and opens his door with the other. "Ladies first," he grins, letting her through first.

She wrinkles her nose but Austin sees the grin she's biting back as she steps out into the hallway first. "So chivalrous," she notes dryly.

"Yeah, I wasn't raised by wolves, unlike some people," he says with a roll of his eyes. "Oof!" he winces when she elbows him sharply in the side. "Jeez! Your elbow is like a harpoon, my God," he mumbles.

Ally rolls her eyes and continues ahead. "Hurry up!" she calls impatiently over her shoulder.

"Yes, ma'am," he grumbles, quickening his pace to fall back into step with her. "So what did you get?" he wonders out loud, rifling through her bags. "Any goodies?" he asks childishly.

She rolls her eyes. "No, not really. Just some stuff for baking and my next few meals."

"Flour, sugar... marshmallows?" he comments curiously, pulling out the last item and waving it around her face triumphantly. "Aha! To complete that perfect cup of hot chocolate, am I right?" he grins boastfully.

"Wha—no!" she sputters, quickly growing red.

He continues waving them around her in a crazed manner. "Then what were you planning with these?" he scoffs. "Were you going to stuff your pillow with marshmallows and sleep on them?" He gives her a very serious look. "Ally, that's ridiculous, even by my standards."

"I was—I was—" she stutters, wracking her brain desperately for an excuse. "I was gonna stick a bow on them! And—and give them to you! Kinda like a joky Christmas present! You know, because—because you love marshmallows so much!" she suddenly blurts out, flashing a false grin at him. "Yay, Christmas!"

He stares at her unblinkingly. "Dude. You're, like, the worst liar ever."

"Shut up," she mutters, grabbing the bag of marshmallows out of his hand and whacking him in the chest with it.

Austin raises an eyebrow. "Ally... they're a bag of _marshmallows_." His voice comes out gently, like he doesn't know how to break the bad news to her.

She stands there for a beat and then whacks him a few more times for good measure. She gives a huffy pout, red still colors her cheeks as she continues on her way to her apartment.

He chuckles and follows after her again. "God, you're adorable," he laughs fondly as they finally make it to her door.

The blush deepens and she reaches for her keys. "Go home," she orders, brushing off his compliment. She starts unlocking the door as Austin waits for her. She opens the door and holds out her hands for her groceries.

Austin rolls his eyes, steps inside, and walks right into her kitchen. Ally follows him inside and sets her things on her couch. She watches him silently as he places everything on her counter.

"Thanks," she says appreciatively, smiling at him.

"No problem," he nods, returning her smile as he makes his way past her living room and to the door.

She meets him there and gives him a small wave as he steps into the hallway. "Night, Austin," she calls quietly.

"Night, Ally," he shoots back with the grin that sometimes makes her stomach flip. Unaware of his effect on her, he turns on his heel to make his way back to his own apartment.

Ally shuts the door gently, but knows that she won't be getting that image of his boyish grin out of her mind anytime soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Oh my gosh, you guys are so awesome. Thanks again for the absolutely lovely feedback. Here's another long chapter for you guys!

And there's quite a few different shout-outs to Miss-Rainy-Skies in this. But there's an obvious one that all of you guys should be able to pinpoint, haha.

* * *

The next morning, Ally still wakes up pretty early despite having the day off, thanks to her internal clock. She goes through her normal morning routine, but happily gets to stay in her pajamas since it's Christmas Eve, meaning that the mall was closed. She decides to put her contacts in so she won't have to fiddle with her glasses while baking and then steps out of her bathroom.

On the way to the kitchen, she throws her hair up into a messy ponytail. Once she's done with her hair, she starts getting out her mixing bowl, other baking supplies, and all the necessary ingredients. With everything littering her counter, she walks into her living room and turns on her TV to pop in Home Alone so it's not completely silent while she bakes.

It's sort of cheating, since the cookies won't be done in time for the movie, but she figures she gets to bend the rules of the tradition if she's spending it alone this year.

_Miss ya, Trish._

She shakes memories of past Christmases with her best friend out of her mind as she walks back into the kitchen. She gears herself up, ready to start on a batch of cookies, smiling to herself as the familiar music for the beginning credits reach her ears.

This is going to be a good day for her, she decides as she listens to the music. She's going to have the whole day to herself, to enjoy one of her favorite movies, to indulge in some delicious cookies, to drink eggnog until she's sick. A nice, quiet day to just relax.

Best of all, Austin's probably off doing his own thing for both Christmas Eve _and_ Christmas so she'll have a two day break from him before he can cause any more damage to her innards. All this stomach flipping and butterfly fluttering were seriously getting on her last nerve. And hopefully, his fanclub will be too busy to bother her as well.

Five minutes later, she's just about to measure the flour when there's a knock at her door. She blinks, surprised and curious. The knocking starts up again after a slight break and she gently lays the measuring cup down and reseals her bag of flour. As she passes the living room, she quickly pauses the movie, and finally gets to her door.

Ally opens the door to find Austin standing in the hallway.

She blinks at him a few times, rather bewildered. "Au—Austin?"

He, however, looks absolutely giddy to have caught her in her pajamas, since he's so used to seeing her impeccably dressed after work. "Cute pjs," he smirks back, eying her up and down.

She glances down at her sky blue slouchy V-neck and black yoga pants. Thank God they aren't anything too embarrassing... or revealing. But then she remembers that it's not like she has any sexy pajamas, anyway.

_Dodged a bullet there, Dawson._

She looks up at him and sees that stupid smirk still on his face. She crosses her arms, willing her blush to dissipate. "Glad you approve," she states humorlessly with a roll of her eyes.

He shrugs. "I mean, it's not really in the Christmas spirit, but that's okay, I guess," he teases.

She frowns, looks him up and down through a narrowed eye. "Oh, and like your gray and black striped t-shirt and jeans are any more Christmas-y than my pajamas," she points out flatly.

He gives her a dirty, wicked smirk. "My boxers happen to have Christmas trees on them," he comments smugly.

Ally reaches up to rub her temples. "This is not going to turn into a conversation about our underwear," she deadpans. Austin starts to lift up his shirt. "No, I don't wanna see!" she hisses, holding out a hand to stop him. "What's the matter with you?" she asks incredulously.

He shrugs again and drops the hem of his shirt. "Your loss," he says.

"So what are you even doing here?" she sighs curiously with a furrow of her brows.

Austin's smirk widens. "We," he pauses to gesture between them with a spark in his eyes, "are going to spend Christmas Eve together," he finishes confidently.

"... What?"

He takes advantage of her sudden shock to push her door wide open, waltzing freely into her apartment.

Ally's eyes follow his movements, a flabbergasted expression on her features. "H—hey!"

He spins around to face her. He claps his hands together and points them in her direction. "Look, I know I'm probably not your first choice—"

"You were never even _a _choice," she grumbles under her breath as she sullenly shuts her door and turns to glare at him.

"—but you clearly don't want to spend this day alone. And it's not like _I_ have any plans, either. So why should two lonely losers spend Christmas Eve alone when they can hang out together?" he asks with a shrug. "Besides! I kind of feel like we've been building a rapport here," he grins happily, gesturing between the both of them once more.

She rolls her eyes and purses her lips. She tilts her head side to side, thinking over his suggestion.

"Well?" he presses, raising his eyebrow, hope shining in his eyes clear as day.

As much as she hates to admit it, she's grown... fond of Austin over the past few days. And, well, he kind of had a point, why couldn't they spend Christmas Eve together? Besides, it's not like she's developing a crush on him or anything, so it's totally going to be a platonic thing.

That's what she painstakingly tries to convince herself as her stomach does another annoying flippy thing as her eyes flick to his boyish grin and then back up to his dark brown eyes, anyway.

"Fine," she agrees resignedly with a sag of her shoulders. "But we do it my way and not a word of complaint!" she demands with one eye narrowing at him as she points a stern finger at him.

He holds up his hands in playful surrender. "Easy, tiger, I'm game for anything," he laughs.

"Good," she says with a relaxed smile. She gestures for him to follow as she steps into the living room. She makes her way to the TV when Austin stops her.

"I love this movie!" he announces delightedly as he looks at the screen, paused on Kevin mid-jump at the top of stairs, yelling about wanting to live alone.

She shakes her head at him. "Cookies now. Movie later." She moves again to turn the TV off.

"Cookies?" he echoes, intrigued. "I think I can get on board with your Christmas tradition, Miss Dawson," he grins.

She laughs. "So, we're going to bake some sugar cookies and make some eggnog. And then we watch the movie and pig out," she explains with a happy shrug. "That's all."

He does a slow clap. "Easiest, most awesome tradition ever," he says with a smug nod of approval.

Ally takes a bow and smirks at him. "It's a pretty awesome one," she agrees proudly. When she straightens up, she meets him in the kitchen and points at the flour. "Okay, you know how to measure flour, right?"

He scoffs at her. "I'm not a _child_, Ally. Please. I've got this," he says pompously. He places his hands on her shoulders and moves her a few steps to the side. "Okay! So how much flour do we need?" he asks, opening the bag up.

"Three cups," she answers from memory as she watches him closely.

"Cool," he chimes, picking up the appropriate measuring cup.

Sadly, it all went downhill from there because, to Ally's absolute horror, he proceeded to ruthlessly drag the cup through the bag of flour.

"_Nooo!_" Ally cries, eyes as wide as saucers.

Austin blinks at her, cup hovering over the medium-sized mixing bowl, flour piled high on top. "What?" he asks innocently.

"You have to spoon the flour into the measuring cup carefully! And you didn't even level it off!" she cries, staring at the cup of flour in his hand, nervously biting her lip.

He looks at the cup in his hand and then levels it off with a quick swipe of his other palm, failing to notice that all the excess landed in the bowl anyway. "I don't think it really matters," he says airily and happily dumps the flour into the bowl. A dusty cloud of flour explodes in mushroom-like plume and he giggles as he watches it settle back down.

Ally palms her face with both hands and gives a small whimper of utter despair. "My perfect batch of cookies... already ruined."

"You said three cups, right?" he asks obliviously as he continues to measure out two more cups without a care in the world. He hums casually to himself as he adds those to the bowl as well.

The brunette groans as he spins around to face her. "What's next?" he wonders aloud.

"This," she mutters with a sigh as she picks up her set of measuring spoons and the container of baking powder. She dumps in a teaspoon's worth and sets the bowl aside. She grabs a wooden spoon and starts stirring, only to have Austin jerk the bowl out of her small hands.

"I wanna stir!" he demands, going full throttle.

Unfortunately, his enthusiastic method causes a giant cloud of flour to puff up into Ally's face. She makes the dangerous mistake of inhaling far too much and is suddenly overcome with an alarmingly loud, hacking cough. "Au—_Austin!_" she chokes out, her hands start waving through the flour cloud in a desperate attempt to get it to dissipate.

"... Oops," he mutters sheepishly with a wince as he sets the bowl onto the counter. "Um... Do you—do you want some water?" he asks uncertainly as a nervous smile appears across his lips.

She hurriedly shakes her head and waves him off, somehow managing to glare at him through her watery eyes. "I—ack!—_hate—_argh!—" is all she can manage through her sputtering and wheezing.

"Flour?" Austin interrupts hopefully.

She shakes her head again, this time much more vigorously, as she starts pointing frantically in his direction.

"... My shirt?" he tries again with a meek smile.

Ally stops her pointing and head shaking to cross her arms and glare even harder at him, her hacking cough subsiding at last. "_You_," she finally grounds out, a bit gruffly thanks to her suddenly dry throat. She pounds at her chest a little and a grunt that would rival that of a lumberjack escapes her dainty mouth, which was an interesting sight and sound to behold.

He dejectedly holds out the bowl and spoon to her in his outstretched arms. "I won't stir anymore," he promises quietly.

And she wants to snatch that bowl right out of his hands, wants to tell him 'Damn right you're never gonna stir again in my household!', but she takes in his adorable little pout and his woebegone puppy dog eyes and, just like _that_, she feels her frustration and annoyance waning.

Oh God, she's got it bad.

Ally utters a groan and points further into her already tiny kitchen, toward the sink. "Just—just..." she breaks off with a sigh, "stir over there, okay?" She reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Try not to make a mess," she adds in a low grumble.

He instantly perks up as he moves in the direction of her pointed finger. "Aye, aye, capt'n!" he chirps, stirring again, but this time at a much slower, gentler pace.

She bites back a smile as she watches him focus intently to avoid making another mess. She snickers lightly as she comes up to him after a few minutes and places her hands on the bowl. "Okay, now that you've stirred together the baking powder and flour, we can set it aside for a moment," she smiles, placing the mixture on the counter.

The brunette takes some butter and sugar into the bowl of her electric mixer and creams everything together, until the mixture is light and fluffy. She stops the paddle and turns to him. "Austin, can you hand me an egg and the vanilla extract?"

He picks up the ingredients she asked for and hands the vanilla to her. "You want me to add the egg now?"

She nods as she adds the extract. "Yep."

"Watch this," he smirks as he cracks the egg opened one-handed right into the metal bowl.

Ally rolls her eyes. "I can do that, too," she says, unimpressed.

A beat passes.

"But it's still cool," he mumbles as he disposes of the eggshell, disappointed that she hadn't been impressed.

Ally laughs and shakes her head as she beats together the mixture for another minute. "Okay, now hand me the bowl of flour," she says. Austin places it in her awaiting hands carefully. She starts tipping in the mixture a bit at a time and turning on her mixer, repeating the process until the flour disappears. "I would let you pour in the flour, but I don't trust you," she deadpans as he watches curiously.

"I can be trusted!" he cries defensively.

She stares him down. "I don't want to die choking on a cloud of flour, Austin. That'd be a sad way to go."

Austin rolls his eyes. "Whatever," he mumbles embarrassingly under his breath. "What's next?"

"In a few minutes, the dough will start unsticking from the sides of the bowl. When it's all together, it'll be ready. Then we stick it in the freezer for about half an hour and once it's done, we can roll out the dough and cut out the cookies!" she grins. She peers into the bowl and slaps at his arm excitedly. "See? It's nearly done!"

"Can I try some of the dough?" he asks excitedly.

Her grin melts away into a frown. "Are you asking for salmonella?" she grunts with a wrinkled nose.

"Uh, _no._ I'm _asking_ for some of the cookie dough," he scoffs with an eyebrow raised high.

She glares at him, unamused. She shuts off the mixer and grabs the spoon from the empty bowl. She scoops out a small amount from the finished dough and roughly shoves the spoon into his mouth. "Smartass," she snorts under her breath.

Austin glares back and spits out the spoon, holding it in one hand. "Rude!" he sputters around the mouthful of unbaked sugar cookie. "Ooh! This is really good!" he cheers as the taste finally registers to him.

He goes to scoop out more but Ally quickly snatches the spoon out of his hand and throws it into the sink, where it clatters around for a moment before settling quietly. "_Austin!_" she calls exasperatedly with her hands on her hips.

"Okay, okay! No more eating uncooked cookie dough!" Austin relents, throwing up his hands in defeated surrender.

"Good!" She rolls her eyes and grabs her plastic wrap from a drawer, handing it to him. "Here. Now lay some out across the counter," she orders as she makes a move toward the bag of flour.

"Yes, sir," he grumbles under his breath as he follows her directions.

Ally stops in her tracks. "What was that?" she calls sharply.

He freezes from unrolling the plastic wrap. "Duh-uh, nothin'," he says sheepishly over his shoulder at her. "Pfft, you're hearing things," he laughs meekly.

She rolls her eyes again, but decides to let the matter go. She walks the short distance back and carefully sprinkles a decent amount of flour all over the plastic wrap. Then she picks up the bundle of sugar cookie and places it in the middle of the plastic. She wraps the plastic around the dough tightly and walks over to her freezer, placing it inside. "Okay! So it'll be ready in thirty minutes!" she says as she turns back around to Austin.

He tilts his head to the side. "Now what?"

"Want to make some eggnog?" she suggests brightly, eyes lighting up.

He grins and holds up his hand. "Sounds awesome," he chuckles.

Her nose crinkles cutely with a wide smile and she returns his high five. "It won't be for a while, though," she laughs. He gives her an absolutely desolate look and she looks at him apologetically. "We have to chill the eggnog in the fridge before we can actually drink it," she explains. "You drink eggnog cold, remember?"

Austin throws his head back and groans. "I'm tired of all this waiting! I just wanna eat and drink everything _now!_ Sooo hungry!" he whines, lolling his head back around and then pouting at her.

She bites her lip to keep from laughing at his childish whining. "We can do lunch after we make the eggnog. It barely takes ten minutes," she promises reassuringly.

The idea of lunch causes him to perk up and quit his whining. "Ooh!" he grins. "And what does Chef Ally have in mind for our lunch?"

She gives him an amused look. "Don't get too excited," she warns. "You've got a choice between sandwiches with store bought deli meats and, like, ramen noodles." She wrinkles her nose in thought. "And there might be some left over potato salad..."

He laughs at her. "You always eat this healthy?" he jokes. "C'mon, I'm sure we can make something," he says optimistically as he opens the door to her fridge. He stares in wonder for a few seconds and then slowly turns back to her. "Do you, like, eat your weight in Go-Gurt on a daily basis or something?" he whispers in awe.

She runs over and slams her refrigerator door closed with her body. "You didn't see anything!" she blurts embarrassingly.

"Dude, I didn't think anybody still ate that stuff," he snorts. "But it's probably because you bought it all," he cackles with a bite of his bottom lip.

"Go-Gurt's totally awesome!" she protests. "It's my favorite," she explains sheepishly. "Well, that along with pickles," she adds with a shrug.

"Argh! Ew! Gross!" Austin gags dramatically, making a face of extreme disgust as he inches away from her.

She rolls her eyes. "I don't eat them at the same time!" she clarifies exasperatedly.

He relaxes with a deep, hearty sigh. "Oh, thank God," he breathes in absolute relief as he claps a hand on her shoulder. "I was seriously worried about you for a minute, there."

She daintily pries his hand off her shoulder with her pointer finger and her thumb. "Good to know that you care so much about my eating habits," she drawls sarcastically.

This time, he claps both hands on both her shoulders. He ignores the face she makes at him. "As your neighbor, and your new best friend, I'm here for you," he says seriously. "And we should totally stick to sandwiches," he adds in a low whisper from the corner of his mouth.

Ally can't help the little bubble of laughter that escapes her throat. "I'll go make the eggnog," she chuckles, biting her lip at him.

* * *

Ally had convinced Austin to make sandwiches for their lunch while she focused on making the eggnog. Once she finished the tradition drink, she sticks the pitcher of it into the fridge and makes her way to her dining table, where he had set up an entire sandwich making station.

"The eggnog's in the fridge," she smiles as she slides into the seat across from him. "How are the sandwiches... coming along?" she trails off uncertainly as she stares at one regular-looking sandwich and another one with a towering stack of at least three slices of bread.

"Fantastic!" he grins, slapping the final piece on top of the tower. "Annnd done!" The sandwich maker claps his hands and rubs them together delightedly. "I'm starving!" he cries, biting his lip in anticipation as he eyes his creation hungrily.

Ally quickly pulls plate with the smaller sandwich towards herself. "I call this one over that monstrosity," she bluntly says.

Austin looks at her, offended. "Uh, this is a work of masterful art, I'll have you know."

She takes a bite of her sandwich. "How are you even gonna eat that thing?" she scoffs around the food, covering her mouth with a hand. "You're gonna have to, like, unhinge your jaw or something."

He gives her an odd look. "I'm not a snake, Ally," he says, laughter evident in his voice. "I'm just gonna eat it like this," he says and he flattens the thing by smashing the thing down with his palms. And then he just shoves a corner into his mouth and takes a giant bite out of the thing.

Ally pauses from taking another bite and she wrinkles her nose at his method. "Gross," she mumbles.

He ignores her, sighing contentedly as he continues chewing. They continue eating in silence for a bit. Austin focuses on his sandwich and Ally looks around her living room, trying to avoid making awkward eye contact as they eat quietly.

But then she's suddenly struck with a thought and she turns to him curiously. "Oh! Hey, I was wondering..." she begins and then falters. "Um, never mind," she quickly adds, averting her eyes.

Austin pauses from taking another bite and raises an eyebrow at her. "What?" he asks. "C'mon, you can't just do that! I'll be dying from curiosity for the rest of the day," he points out. "What's up?"

She hesitates, but when he continues to stare at her, she swallows and awkwardly asks, "So... are you spending Christmas alone as well?"

"Uh, yeah, actually," he says, scratching the back of his neck a bit.

She frowns. "Christmas Eve is one thing, but why are you spending tomorrow alone?" she asks, tilting her head to the side.

He sighs and considers her for a moment, thinking about whether he should tell her or not. "If I tell you, will you promise not to coo or 'aww' at me?" he finally says in a low voice.

She looks at him bemusedly. "Why would I do that? Does your story involve, like, orphaned puppies or something?" she asks wryly.

Austin scoffs at her incredulously. "Uh, you can bet that if there were orphaned puppies involved, I wouldn't be here. I'd be at home, playing with them, and getting rich off their YouTube videos," he says mock-seriously.

She bites back a smile and focuses on the matter at hand. "So?" she presses. "Why are you spending the holidays alone?" she asks, getting back to the point.

He shrugs nonchalantly. "I don't really have a lot of friends in the area since I just moved here and my family's kind of scattered everywhere. I usually do Christmas with my parents, anyway. But their 25th anniversary is coming up soon, so I got them tickets to a cruise so they can celebrate a little early. They left a few days ago."

Ally's face starts to melt and her jaw drops open. But before anything can come out, he shushes her.

"You said you wouldn't coo or 'aww'," he reminds her flatly.

She pouts dejectedly at him. "But it's cute," she mumbles.

Austin rolls his eyes. "My mom was really excited but then she tried to convince me to come along. I obviously turned her down, because I highly doubt she'd want her twenty-four year-old son hanging around as a third wheel," he says dryly.

She snickers. "You could have asked one of your fangirls to come along as a fake girlfriend. I think a lot of them would be up for the task," she teases.

He smirks and looks her straight in the eye. "Aw, c'mon, Ally, you know you're my go-to girl when I need a fake girlfriend."

Ally shudders at the idea of the two of them on a cruise, faking a relationship. "I don't even want to think about all the damage control we'd have to do," she comments under her breath.

"Oh!" he suddenly exclaims. "Speaking of parents leaving for the holidays... did your dad leave yet? For, uh, Louisiana, was it?"

She nods, smiling softly. "Yeah, his flight left at four this morning. I offered to drop him off at the airport, but he said his friend was just going to have a cab pick the both of them up."

Austin wrinkles his nose. "Waking up at four sounds awful."

She laughs. "I am a bit glad that he didn't need me to drop him off. I got to sleep in a little this morning for the first time in _forever!_ I'm always opening the store," she explains.

"Well, good. You deserve a break," he says sincerely, finishing up his sandwich. He stands up and reaches over to grab her plate but she places a hand on his wrist.

"Oh! You don't have to do that," she says gently. "You're the guest, and contrary to popular belief, I wasn't _actually _raised by wolves," she adds with a raised eyebrow.

"It's fine," he says with a grin. "I kind of barged in on you this morning, anyway," he laughs.

"True..." she agrees with a small sigh. She releases her hand from his wrist and lets him take her plate. She looks at the mess of cheese, deli meats, and veggies scattered along her dinning table. She starts gathering all the things together and cleaning up.

He's back barely a moment later and he comes over to help her with the rest. "Hey."

"Yeah?" she asks curiously.

"You gonna finish up your lunch with some Go-Gurt?"

She stares at his straight face, deadpan expression on her own. She can, however, see an obvious gleam of amusement in his eye and she exhales at him irritably. "Shut up," she grumbles, gathering up everything as she she shuffles off in shame into the kitchen. After putting everything away, she grabs two sticks of the squeezable yogurt. She opens one of them and comes back to her dining table. "Do you want one?" she offers resignedly as she starts eating hers.

"You sure you wanna share your Go-Gurt stash?" he jokes as he raises an eyebrow at the tube of yogurt.

She rolls her eyes and smacks him in the chest with it. "This offer of Go-Gurt is a true sign of our friendship," she grins as he takes it from her hand.

He chuckles and rips the top open. "Cheers," he smirks, holding out the plastic tube to her.

Ally laughs as she taps her Go-Gurt tube against his. "Cheers," she repeats with a bright smile.

Austin takes a slurp of his yogurt and looks at her, nodding approvingly. "Hey, this stuff is way better than I remember!"

"You can't have any more," she says quickly.

"You're a terrible friend," Austin says with a somber expression.

She pats him gently on the shoulder. "I love Go-Gurt more than I love you," she sighs.

He's about to retort when she suddenly smacks him excitedly, pointing at her clock. "Hey, hey! The cookie dough is done!" she squeals, bouncing up and down. And then she runs into the kitchen, Austin chuckling and following behind her.

The excited brunette throws away her already empty plastic tube and goes to retrieve the chilled cookie dough from the freezer. She turns around and finds Austin leaning against her counter, staring at her with a soft smile on his lips. "What?" she asks as her smile falters.

"Nothing," he says with a casual shrug.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she questions as she quietly shuts her freezer door.

He chuckles and ducks his head for a second. "I'm just excited for the cookies," he answers, sounding far too innocent.

She glares at him suspiciously. "Okaaay..." she says slowly, making her way to the counter. Once she reaches the counter, she unwraps the cookie dough and breaks it in half. She takes out one chunk and wraps up the other in the plastic again. "Can you stick this in the fridge? _Not_ the freezer." she clarifies as she hands it over to him.

"No problem," he nods as he takes it from her and does as he's told. "Is that all?"

"Oh! And preheat the oven to 350!" she throws over her shoulder. "Thanks!"

Ally reopens her bag of flour and sprinkles lightly over her counter. She places the dough in the center and opens a drawer for her rolling pin and some parchment paper. After tearing off a piece, she sets it over the cookie dough and starts rolling out the dough.

Austin frowns as he watches her work. "Why are you doing it like that?"

"Well, this way, I won't need to add extra flour," she explains. "Extra flour makes the dough tougher and it might make little bumps when you bake the cookies."

He smirks at her. "And you can't have imperfect sugar cookies."

She pauses to push a tendril of hair off her forehead and cheek with the back of her hand, turning to him with a grin. "Exactly," she says, getting back to work on rolling out the top half of the dough.

Austin watches her work and when the same piece of hair falls against her cheek again, he quickly reaches over and tucks it behind her ear.

She freezes and looks at him curiously.

"Just looking out for my baking partner," he explains innocently with a mild shrug. "You've, uh, got flour all over you hands," he reasons further.

"Thanks..." she says softly, finally finishing up the dough. "So that's done," she says, a bit awkwardly. "Um, hang on. I have to get the cookie cutters." She looks up at the storage space above her fridge. "Dang it..." she says under her breath, "I need the footstool."

Austin laughs and points at where her line of vision leads. "Up there, I'm guessing?" At her affirmative nod, he opens the cabinet doors and finds two cardboard boxes. "Which one?"

"Both?" Ally shrugs. "I can't remember," she admits with a sheepish smile as she goes to wash the flour off her hands.

He brings both of them down and he places one box on the opposite counter for her.

"Alright! So, you go through that box, okay? And I'll look through this one!" she suggests as she finishes drying her hands off.

"Sounds good!" he says as he sets the other box on the counter with cookie dough.

She starts rifling through her box and after a few minutes of digging through cutter set after cutter set, she still hasn't found the one labeled 'Christmas'. She frowns, about to give up. "Austin, I don't think they're in this one. Have you found them yet?"

He doesn't answer. but his back is to her and she can't quite make out what he's doing.

"... Austin?" she calls curiously, slowly dropping the bag with different autumn shapes back into the box. She sneaks up behind him and her jaw drops in shock at what she sees. "You've got to be kidding me," she groans.

Austin freezes in the middle of happily cutting out a brontosaurus. He slowly turns to her with a nervous smile. "... Oops?" he tries with a sheepish wince.

She stares at him flatly. "You're like this _giant_ man-child," she says incredulously, gesturing with her hands spread wide apart to indicate a vast measurement. "Are you aware of this?" His smile grows more sheepish and she grows more irritable. "Will you move aside?!" she snaps, shoving him out of the way. She stands there and surveys the damage.

In the few minutes she'd left Austin to his own devices, he's managed to cut a handful of shapes into her meticulously rolled out cookie dough. Worse of all, he had scattered the shapes randomly across the cookie dough instead of using the space effectively like she would have. But along with the brontosaurus, there's a whale, Mickey Mouse's head, a tulip, a sneaker, and, strangely enough, a hexagon rounded out Austin's little troop of misfit cookies.

"... A hexagon?" Ally blinks in confusion, eyebrows furrowing. "Why did you pick a hexagon?" she asks. She's not even sure if she remembers ever having a hexagon cookie cutter.

Austin starts to open his mouth and then she quickly cuts him off with an annoyed wave of her hand. "Never mind! We're supposed to be making _Christmas_ cookies! Austin, _none_ of these shapes are for Christmas!" she pouts, crossing her arms at him. "I don't get it. You're the one that keeps bothering me about Christmas this and Christmas that. So what's with all these crazy shapes?"

"All the different shapes excited me," he confesses with a childish pout, feeling guilty.

"_Giant_ man-child," she repeats under her breath. "I _swear_..."

"We could put a little Santa hat on all of them?" he suggests with a small smile. "Like, when we decorate them! You know, with frosting or whatever."

Her eyes narrow at his pathetic idea. "You want me to put a Santa hat on a sneaker? And a tulip? And your stupid hexagon?" she asks sarcastically.

Austin winces and turns his back to her. He rifles through the box quickly and pulls out a plastic bag labeled 'Christmas' in her neat handwriting and holds it out to her like some sort of peace offering. "Um, I found these?" he tries instead. He twists his lips into as charming of a smile as he can manage.

A beat of silence passes as she continues to stare at him, with an expressionless face and dead eyes.

"Ally. Ally. Ally. C'mon. Ally. Ally. Ally," he takes on a staccato rhythm, nudging her in the arm with them repeatedly after every punctuated word.

She snatches the bag from his hand and rolls her eyes. "I am never baking cookies with you again," she vows vehemently. She opens the bag and starts pulling out all the different shapes.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes sincerely.

"Whatever," she sighs. "Just... let me finish up the rest." She carefully places the various shapes on the dough, trying to efficiently use up the rest of the space left behind. She manages to fit a snowflake between the tulip and the brontosaurus. "Go sit your butt on my couch," she orders in a huffy voice.

He pouts at her. "Don't be mad," he whines.

She glares at him over her shoulder. "_Couch!_" she barks, pointing into her living room.

"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that," he chuckles lowly into her ear as he comes up behind her. He places a hand on either side of her counter, boxing her in.

She'd meant to gently press the snowflake into the dough, but Austin's hot breath on her ear and neck makes her twist the cutter a little too roughly. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she's too distracted by his warm chest pressing into her back to notice her imperfect snowflake. "Au—Austin?" she squeaks, her neck and cheeks flushing.

"Hmm?" he hums with a little smirk.

Ally swallows thickly and slowly swivels her head to her left. Her eyes land on his muscular chest and they quickly skip up to meet his gaze. She stares back with wide, questioning eyes and she can't find anything to say so she just stays silent, hoping and praying that she's the only one that can hear the wild thumping of her insane heartbeat.

Austin moves a hand to rest gently on her hip and she jumps a bit at the touch. She takes a quick look down at the fingers gripping her right hip before looking up to meet his gaze again. He's staring at her through half-lidded eyes and under heavy lashes and Ally starts to feel an intense case of butterflies billowing up in her stomach.

"Weren't you going to say something?" he whispers curiously, his smirk widening. Her mouth drops into a little 'o', but no words come out and he chuckles at her. "You're cute when you're speechless," his voice comes out low and raspy, the smirk never disappearing. She blinks rapidly and her cheeks heat up from the compliment. She's still, however, speechless.

He starts to lean in more, angling his lips as her eyelids start to flutter, and he's about to close the space between them, when Ally's cellphone goes off in the living room.

Both of them jump and Ally tears her eyes away from his, to look at her phone sitting on her coffee table instead, buzzing to life in an obscenely loud fashion. She's feeling a strange mix of relief, annoyance, and disappointment.

She finds herself whispering a soft, "Sorry."

Austin's fingers tighten their grip on her hip for barely a second before letting go. He steps away from her, putting a good amount of distance between their suddenly too warm bodies. He nods at her stiffly and coughs, the hand that was just on her hip reaching up to scratch at his neck nervously. "Uh, you gonna get that anytime soon?" he jokes with a shaky smile.

She gives him a robotic nod and bites the corner of her lip. "Yeah," she mutters. "Um, could you—?" She pauses and gestures to the mess of cookie cutters.

He nods again, more relaxed this time, and waves her off. "No problem. Christmas shapes only, gotcha," he says with a wry smile as he picks up a cutter shaped like a candy cane.

She's grateful for her cellphone being on the coffee table because the second she picks it up and holds it to her ear, she practically collapses onto the couch from her wobbly knees.

"Hello?" Ally winces from how breathy her voice sounds. She clears her throat and repeats the greeting in a much firmer voice.

"Ally? Are you okay?" a familiar voice sounds through the phone.

She immediately brightens. "Trish? Trish! I didn't think you'd be able to call me! What's up?" she laughs. Her best friend makes a noise somewhere between a grunt and a groan and she smiles.

"Okay, I'm technically not supposed to call you, but Dez is currently out buying more film and I have some time before he comes back," she says in a rush. "Plus, there's awful reception _everywhere_."

The brunette raises her eyebrow and asks, "Okaaay... so why are you calling me, then?"

"Because I missed you, ya jerk!"

Ally laughs and shakes her head a bit. "Aw, I missed you, too," she murmurs, practically cooing.

"Argh! Don't get all soft on me."

Ally rolls her eyes good-naturedly at Trish's response. "So how's the trip so far?" she asks curiously.

"Pretty awful," the Latina mutters darkly. "I am never letting Dez pick our vacation spots ever again," she vows.

She raises an eyebrow at this. "Are you allowed to tell me where you're at, yet?"

"Girl, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you," she snorts. "Just guess what we're up to," she challenges.

Her other eyebrow joins the first one. "What, is he making you camp out somewhere while he tries to hunt down Bigfoot?" she asks sarcastically. Imagining the sight, she snickers and shakes her head at her own joke.

"... God, Ally, how are you so good at this game?!"

Ally gasps and shoots up into an upright sitting position on the very edge of her couch. "You're _kidding_," she breathes, eyes widening in disbelief.

An annoyed grunt sounds through the phone. "I wish I was kidding," comes a muffled reply. "Anyway, please tell me your Christmas Eve is going way better than mine," Trish whines. "Are you making the cookies today or tomorrow?"

"Today," Ally answers honestly, sounding a bit sympathetic.

"Oh man, I miss your cookies," Trish sighs wistfully. "What are you going to do tomorrow, then?"

"Probably make more," she laughs. "I'll have a batch for you when you get back, don't worry," she promises with a small smile.

"You better!" Trish demands. "Are you by yourself all Christmas? I know your dad's leaving town and everybody else is a little too busy and crazy this year to get together..."

Ally's heart warms from the concern in her friend's voice. She wants to let her know that she's fine and hasn't been lonely the past few days. But something tells her that she should probably _not _mention Austin, though. Trish would most likely jump to conclusions about him or badger her relentlessly about miniscule details about him, her, and them.

Plus, it'd be weird to bring up Austin when he's only a few feet away in her living, probably eavesdropping.

And then there was that entirely way too weird moment right before the phone call...

"Oh, you know," Ally says distractedly, feeling another blush creep into her cheeks as she relives said moment. "Nothing new. Working a lot, Dad keeps bugging me to go out, gonna watch Home Alone in a bit," she manages casually.

"Is that all?"

"Same old, same old," she continues in the same distracted manner.

"Gee, could you vague that up for me?" Trish asks sarcastically. "So nothing new?" she presses suspiciously.

Ally winces at her friend's suspicion. But before she can defend herself or back up her lies, a loud clatter comes from her kitchen and her eyes widen from the sudden noise.

_Oh crap_, she thinks as she jumps off the couch and runs into the kitchen to make sure Austin hasn't broken anything important.

He's down on one knee when he turns to face her with a sheepish expression. "Sorry, sorry!" Austin says, picking up a couple of the cookie cutters he'd accidentally dropped on the floor.

"_Shh!_" she shushes desperately, gesturing wildly toward her phone.

"What was that?" comes Trish's sharp voice. "Do you have someone over?" she demands.

Austin opens his mouth, about to apologize again but Ally quickly bends over and places a finger to his lips, effectively shushing him. He gives her a look of mock-outrage.

"Wha-at?" she laughs awkwardly into the phone. "What you're hearing, it was—it was just my TV!" she blurts desperately. She ignores the incredulous look Austin shoots her due to her absolutely terrible lie.

"Are you sharing our Christmas tradition with some _stranger?_" Trish sputters indignantly, clearly insulted.

"What?! No!" Ally insists in a deafening cry. She glances at Austin, guilt written all over her face.

Austin's calloused fingers wrap around her slender wrist and he pulls her hand away. "Am I just your dirty, little secret, Miss Dawson?" he asks, purposefully loud so he can see her squirm uncomfortably. "I thought we had a special connection!" He's practically shouting into the phone at this point.

Ally quickly moves the phone to her neck to cover the mouthpiece. "_Shut up!_" she hisses irritably at him. She moves the phone back to her ear, quickly turning red.

"_Oh my God!_ You _do_ have someone over!" Trish screeches excitedly. "And it sounds like a guy! Ally, Ally! Is he hot? Are you seducing someone using our childhood Christmas traditions? Are you going to get _laid_ tonight?!"

"Oh God," Ally squeaks, bringing up a hand to massage the bridge of her nose. Her face is starting to turn alarming shades of red by now.

"Because, if you are, I approve. I mean, it's a little disturbing that you're tainting our Christmas traditions like this, but if he's hot enough, I'd be willing to let everything slide," Trish says seriously. "Send me a picture!" she whisper-shouts into the phone.

"_Trish!_" Ally hisses through gritted teeth. "No. None of the above, okay?"

At this point, Austin is standing back up again and he starts hovering near her cellphone, trying to listen in. "What are you guys talking about? Ally, who is this?" he questions loudly, aiming for the mouthpiece of Ally's phone. He wants to make sure that whoever it is on the other end can hear.

Ally's jaw drops at his sniggering face and she smacks a hand at his chest. "Argh, you're the worst!" she shouts in aggravation.

"Dude, Ally, he sounds _so hot!_"

"Ooh, Ally! I sound _so hot!_"

Ally palms her face with her free hand and she doesn't think it's possible for her face to get any redder. Trish starts spewing question after question at her and Austin leans against her counter, clearly pleased with his hot voice. She's about two seconds away from punching that cocky smirk right off his gorgeous face.

She smooshes her cheek with her palm in despair. "I hate you. I hate both of you," she groans out loud.

Austin immediately grabs the phone away from her hand and holds it to his ear. "Hello?" he says innocently. "So I hear your name is Trish?"

Her eyes widen and she tries to reach for her phone. "Oh my God, Austin! Give it back!" she pleads.

He smirks and distracts her by grabbing the ends of her ponytail and rubbing it all over her face. As she stands there, spitting out bits of her hair, he spins out of her reach and runs into her living room, still on the phone with her best friend. "Ohh, _Ally!_" he moans into the phone.

The horrified brunette chases after him, redder than ever. They circle around her couch and Austin ends up facing the back of it and Ally's knees are pressed up against the seats as she leans over, reaching for the cellular device.

They're currently at a stand still; she darts to the left, him to the right and vice versa.

"Austin! Give it back!" she growls impatiently.

Austin's smirk turns positively dirty as he makes another exaggerated moan. "Not there! Don't touch me there! Not my left knee! You know how hot and bothered that makes me!"

Her jaw drops and she sputters at him incoherently for a long moment.

And then he suddenly hangs up the phone and throws it at her with a chirpy, "Here! Catch!"

"Gah!" The brunette fumbles with the phone for a bit before she finally gets a hold of it and clutches it to her chest. The only thing she can really process and spit out is, "Your left knee?! … _What?!_"

Austin gives her a deadly serious look, points a finger at her. "Careful, Dawson. That spot's a danger zone." He lifts up his left knee and points at it with the other hand.

She doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, but either would be in hysterics. What she does, instead, is say, "I sincerely hope you're joking."

He laughs and walks into her kitchen, calling over his shoulder, "C'mon! Let's finish up these cookies!"

She sighs to herself and moves to put her phone back on her coffee table. Halfway to the table, it vibrates in her hand, signaling a text message from her outspoken friend.

_WHO IS THIS GUY?! _

Ally flushes a bright red and texts back that Austin's just a joky neighbor and tells her drop the matter. She turns off her cellphone to avoid distractions for the rest of the day.

She meets Austin in the kitchen and sees him carefully move the cookies he'd cut out to the metal pan. She watches as he transports the last cookie, a stocking, to the pan.

He looks at her and gestures to the remnants. "Can't let this go to waste, right?"

She rolls her eyes and steps up to the counter. She rips a tiny piece off of the corner and forcibly stuffs it into Austin's mouth. "Jerk," she deadpans under her breath as she slowly starts kneading the leftover dough together.

The blond's eyebrows shoot up and he quickly chews and swallows the cookie bits. He stares at her curiously. "C'mon, it was just a joke. Are you mad?" he sighs.

"Was all that really necessary?" she asks as she works out her frustration with him on the dough. She shoots him an unimpressed glare.

Austin rolls his eyes. "Your friend thinks you're getting laid!" he points out with a sexually implied waggle of his eyebrows.

She reaches for the parchment paper, preparing to roll out the dough again. "How is that helping?" she questions tonelessly.

"This way, she'll think that you're having fun during the holidays!" he grins. "You know," he tacks on with a carefree shrug, "instead of being all alone and sad."

"I happen to have absolutely no qualms about her thinking that I live a depressingly single life," she admits dryly as she starts cutting out more shapes.

He grins at her. "Well, now she thinks you're hooking up with some hot guy. So for that, you're welcome," he says smugly.

She wrinkles her nose in shame and disgust. "I think our fake relationship is starting to get out of hand," she mumbles under her breath as she places the second batch of cookies onto the pan, spacing them out evenly. She takes the pan and sticks it in the freezer, ensuring that the cookies will hold their shape while baking.

"I don't know about that," he frowns. "It's not like we fake-moved in or I fake-proposed to you," he points out mock-seriously. "We just fake-hooked up."

The brunette gives him a hard look. "You're the biggest _real_ idiot I've ever met," she mutters. She exhales sharply to try to gain back some of her patience and keeps an eye on the clock, waiting for five minutes.

Austin points at the second set of remnants. "Can I have the rest of that?" he asks giddily.

"I hope you get salmonella," she whispers darkly in response.

He sidles along the side of the counter, hip-bumping her out of the way. "Awesome!" he cheers, excitedly eating the last of the bits.

"Gah!" she exclaims as she flails out of the way from his not so gentle hip nudge. She rolls her eyes at him. "Rude," she grumbles. "Now who's the one raised by wolves?" she comments under her breath.

"Raised by what?" he asks around a giant mouthful of uncooked cookie as he turns to look at her.

"Oh, never mind!" she snaps as she takes the pan out of the freezer and walks over to the oven. She slides the cookies in, sets the timer. "The first batch of cookies are finally in the oven!" she cheers in relief.

"About time," Austin laughs. "How long until they're done?"

"Ten minutes," she answers. "Now I have to roll out the second half of the dough," she says as she pulls out the rest from the fridge.

Austin watches her unwrap the dough and sprinkles some flour on the counter for her, remembering back to the first batch. "How's that?" he asks, wiping his hand on his jeans.

"Oh, um, that's good," she says, biting back a giggle at the smeared, white hand print on his jeans. "Thanks." She shoots him a small smile and places the dough on the counter.

"You're welcome," he says. He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she leans over the counter, gearing up to work on the dough.

Ally swallows nervously from his touch but concentrates solely on rolling out the dough. She works silently and Austin leans against the counter as he watches her. Ignoring his stares, she has the shapes cut into the dough in record time and when she procures a second baking pan, she quickly transports the cookies over.

After she puts them in the freezer, she turns to him and smiles. "Done!" she says brightly.

"That was... fast," he says, chuckling lightly.

She rolls her eyes. "Well, when you don't _goof off_, you can get a lot done a lot faster," she says pointedly. She gestures toward the remnants. "I barely got any cookies from the left overs, so I'm not even going to bother re-rolling. You wanna eat this?" she asks.

"I would love to," he starts as he places a hand over his stomach. "But I'd rather save my stomach for eggnog and _finished_ cookies," he admits sheepishly.

"You sure?" she laughs with a raised eyebrow. "I'm just going to throw all this away, then," she warns, gathering up the extra, unused dough.

"Wait!" he calls suddenly, quickly reaching over and snatching a tiny piece from the palm of her hand. "Okay, now you can throw away the rest," he says with an affirmative nod as he eats the bit he stole from her.

She rolls her eyes and walks over to her trash can, dumping whatever is left in her hand. She moves to wash and dry her hands.

The timer for the oven sounds and Austin flings himself in front of the oven. "I'll get them!" he shouts excitedly, grabbing her giant mittens and putting them on.

She giggles at his enthusiasm and helps out by opening the oven door. While Austin takes the first batch out, Ally runs to the freezer and grabs the second batch, quickly popping those into the oven and setting the timer, just like before. Even though her back is turned to him, she quickly shouts, "Don't you _dare_ try to eat any of the cookies before they're cooled! You'll—"

"Ah! Ah! Hot! Haaawt!" a whine interrupts, followed by the sound of a cookie dropping onto the metal pan.

"—burn yourself..." she finishes with a resigned sigh. She spins around and throws a hand to his shoulder, turning him around to face her.

Austin already has a guilty expression on his face. "They looked so good?" he tries with an apologetic smile.

She glares at him. "Are you okay?" she asks tiredly.

He nods, hissing a bit. "Yeah, I'm fine," he answers with a mild wince, shaking his hand slightly.

Her eyes soften just a tad and she grabs his shaking hand and pulls it closer to her so she can properly examine it. She has a gentle hold on his wrist and he splays his hand out for her, palm facing upward. "Well, it doesn't look like it'll blister," she comments absent-mindedly as she continues admiring his hand, making mental notes about the calluses on his fingers, probably from all the years of playing guitar. She runs her fingers lightly down the center of his palm, marvels at how tiny hers seem in comparison.

"Ally?" he whispers gruffly after a long pause.

The sound of his voice makes her gasp and shove the appendage back at him. "Sorry," she mumbles with a blush.

"So, uh, when will the cookies finish cooling down?" he asks after he takes a minute to clear his throat.

"Another ten minutes," she answers, grateful that he decided to move on instead of dwelling on that weird little moment she had with his hand. "But since the second batch is in the oven, why don't we just start the movie?" she suggests when she notices his put-off sigh.

"And break out the eggnog?" he asks hopefully.

She laughs, already feeling back at ease. "Go start the movie and I'll bring us some. Sound good?"

"Meet you in the living room," he grins as he leaves her side.

Moments later, Ally cradles a mug of the holiday drink to her chest as she settles comfortably into her couch next to Austin. "Here," she says softly as she puts his on the coffee table.

He eyes it suspiciously and holds the mug up to his nose. The suspicion doesn't disappear and it starts to unnerve Ally.

"What? What's wrong with my eggnog?" she demands defensively. "It tastes fine!" When his eyes only narrow in further suspicion, she takes a long sip to make a point. "See? It's not like I put rat poison in it." She sets the mug on the table.

"Did you put bourbon in it?" he finally asks, raising an eyebrow at her. "I mean, I know you don't drink, but what's eggnog without bourbon?" he questions.

She fights the urge to face-palm. "Oh my God." She gives him an incredulous stare. "That's what you're worried about?"

"This better not be bourbon-free!" he says, as if the notion of alcohol-free eggnog is an offense of the highest degree.

Ally rolls her eyes and gets up wordlessly to head back into the kitchen. She rummages through her pantry for a minute or so and comes back with a tiny bottle of used bourbon. She slams it onto the coffee table for him.

"In case you needed more," she explains as sits back down.

He takes a long sip and mulls over the taste. "Hm... it's actually perfect," he admits and takes another drink. "Damn, this is really good," he compliments with a look of approval.

"Alton Brown's secret recipe," she says with a winning smile. "So secret, I found it on the internet."

Austin laughs at her confession and grabs the remote sitting on the table. "Ready?" he grins, throwing an arm around the back of the couch and shifting towards her. At her affirmative nod, he presses play on the remote.

A minute or two into the credits, the timer goes off a second time and they both look at each other.

"Not me!" they both blurt, fingers to their noses.

Ally's just a smidgen faster though and she sticks out her tongue at his defeated sigh.

"You suck." He reaches over and playfully tweaks her nose between his forefinger and thumb.

She swats at his hand and jerks her head to the side in annoyance. "Just go grab the cookies from the oven!"

"Fine!" he grumbles with a roll of his eyes as he shoots up off the couch. He purposefully sticks his butt in her face as he passes by. "Oops, sorry!" he snickers sarcastically.

She squeals and covers her face from the unwanted view. "Ew, Austin!" she cries exasperatedly. But she bites back a smile as she listens to him laugh all the way into the kitchen.

He's back within minutes but before he can walk pass her, she quickly scoots over to his previous seat. Austin raises an eyebrow at her. "Why are you in my seat?" he asks, looking down at her.

"I don't want another ass-sault," she says, biting back a giggle.

Austin stares at her with a flat expression. "Wow. Really?"

"Get it?" she grins, finally starting to break at her own joke. She swats at his leg, fully cackling at this point, "Get it? C'mon, Austin. These are the jokes."

"I am about to sit on you," he warns. She opens her mouth excitedly, and he holds up a hand, effectively silencing her. "No, no! Don't make that joke again. Ever," he grunts as he plops down next to her, wiggling in close to her side.

She watches him with an arched brow. "Comfy?" she asks sarcastically.

Austin throws an arm around the back of her couch like before and his side smashes up against her arm, all nice and snug. "Very," he says. His tone is innocent and casual enough, but his wolfish smirk says otherwise.

She snorts and leans into him a little, so that her head is just barely resting on his shoulder. She readjusts her arm into a more comfortable position. "Just watch the movie," she orders firmly.

"Alright, alright," he sighs, pretending to sound put-off.

She looks down at their thighs pressed together and without a second thought, her hand reaches over and impulsively gives his left knee a firm squeeze. The touch results in absolutely no reaction from the blond.

Austin looks down at her with a quirked brow. "Really? You thought that I was serious?" he deadpans.

"I just had to make sure!" she grumbles embarrassingly as she moves her hand away.

He laughs as he moves his arm from the couch to rest securely around her shoulders, pulling her into him. "You're such a dork," he murmurs fondly.

Ally smiles softly to herself as she curls even more into his side.


	4. Chapter 4

Here's another 10,000 words for ya. Next week is the last chapter, guys. Thanks again for all the wonderful feedback!

Thanks to Miss-Rainy-Skies for helping inspire this chapter when I got stuck.

There's also a nod to the always offensive Nathan Young from Misfits in here and if you're a dedicated enough fan, you should be able to spot it.

* * *

Ally quickly learns that Austin is not the best viewing partner.

For starters, during the slower parts, he'd either move constantly, play with her hair, try to talk to her, or just over the movie in general.

Wait, no, he actually did all of that during the _entire_ movie.

"Austin, shh!" she mutters, annoyed. "This is my favorite part!" She shifts away from him and closer to the edge of her seat, trying to focus on the movie despite his best attempts to distract her.

He looks at her flatly. "Ally, _every_ part so far has been your 'favorite' part."

"Then stop talking!" she hisses back, eyes never leaving the TV. "I thought you liked this movie."

"Well, I do, but I also like making my own commentary."

She finally looks over at him. "Well, I don't want to hear it," she informs him she turns back to the TV. "I'll kick you out if you're not quiet," she warns.

"Fine, fine," he grumbles. He leans forward and grabs a cookie from the plate of Christmas-shaped cookies. He shoves it in his mouth to keep it occupied, in an attempt to stay quiet.

They had both decided to forgo decorating them because Austin had wanted to eat them immediately and Ally was positive that he would have ruined her immaculate decorating process, anyhow. Ally had also deemed his random shapes a slap in the face of her childhood traditions, so they were still sitting in the kitchen.

The room falls silent, save for the sound coming from the TV and Ally's just about to fully relax. She's giggling at Kevin's iconic scream face after having put on his father's after shave, when Austin ruins the quiet yet again.

"You know, I've made that same mistake," he states casually as he watches the TV.

She bristles in annoyance and turns to him. She's about to tell him off yet again when a strangled snort of laughter escapes her, instead.

Austin has placed his hands on his face, mimicking the same expression in a scarily accurate representation.

She smacks a hand to her forehead, her shoulders start to shake with silent laughter and she turns to look at him from under her palm.

"Seriously. I was, like, ten when it happened. That shit stings," he deadpans, but his hands are still pressed against his cheeks and his eyes are still comically wide.

"You're an idiot," she murmurs after her giggles subside. The laughter is still dancing in her eyes as she fixes him with a warm, affectionate grin.

His hands flop back down to his lap and he smirks at her. "So I've been told," he says wryly, raising an eyebrow at her. "You planning on getting more creative with those insults anytime soon?" he teases, reaching up to yank on the end of her ponytail.

Ally rolls her eyes and a hand reaches for the plate, only to have her fingers meet empty space and crumbs. She blinks and looks down, seeing no actual cookies on the plate. "You ate the last cookie," she frowns.

"It was delicious," he smirks tauntingly with a satisfied sigh.

She glares at him and rockets up off the couch, snatching the plate off the coffee table. "No, you stay, make yourself comfortable. I'll go and get more," she says sarcastically, and her voice comes out drier than the Sahara Desert.

He quirks a brow at her and settles all the way back into her couch, wiggling his butt around to find the perfect dimple in her couch's cushion. He laces his fingers behind his head and kicks his feet up on her coffee table. "Don't mind if I do."

With an impossibly flat stare set into her features, she gathers up a small dash of cookie crumbs between pinched fingers and sprinkles them into his perfectly styled hair.

He flinches away from her hand, feet falling off the table, hands immediately reaching up to brush the crumbs off of his head. "My hair!" he whines, glaring at her through his mussed up bangs as she gracefully hops over his feet to avoid tripping over them.

She grins to herself on the way to the kitchen for their second plate of cookies.

* * *

The screen fades to black and they both have wide, matching smiles as the credits start to roll.

"Never gets old," the brunette laughs lightly, looking over to Austin.

He stretches with his arms high above his head. "Very much agreed," he nods with a grin. He gets up and crosses the length of her living room, stopping in front of her DVD player and removing the disc.

"So, we're full on cookies, half the eggnog's gone, the movie's over, and I won't be making another batch of cookies for my dad and Trish until tomorrow," Ally rattles off on her fingers as Austin turns off the movie and her TV. She glances at the clock and sees that it's only a little past three. "... Now what?" she questions out loud, mostly too herself, but Austin is clearly up to the challenge of finding a new task as he turns around.

He stands in the middle of her tiny living room and stares at her curled up form on the couch. "I know what we're gonna do next," he says, full of confidence. "Get up," he adds enthusiastically. She lifts a brow, but doesn't move another muscle, and it makes Austin repeat his order in a more hurried manner.

Ally's normally large doe eyes quickly narrow in suspicion. "Whhhy?" she asks, dragging out the word past its due of one syllable. "What are we doing?"

"Tomorrow's Christmas Day. And I've noticed that you happen to be missing something vitally important for the celebrated day."

"It doesn't snow in Miami," she shoots back without skipping a beat.

He pauses, momentarily deterred. "Okaaay, fair point. But I wasn't talking about snow," he clarifies with a light shake of his head.

She frowns and crosses her arms. "Is this going where I think it's going?" she questions suspiciously. Her eyes narrow further, becoming dangerous slits and she cocks her head to the side.

The shrug he gives her is far too fake and innocent to be trusted. "Maybe," he says with a musical lilt to his voice.

"Austin."

His name leaves her lips in a tight, even tone and he knows he's testing her patience. But he always did like to live dangerously. "We're getting you a Christmas tree," he states and while there's an air of kiddish glee, there's also a very, very set and firm undertone that leaves no room for arguing.

But Ally isn't about to leave her cozy apartment on this lazy day off without a fight. Especially for something as stupid as a Christmas tree that will be up for less than forty-eight hours.

Her eyebrows shoot up. "You're kidding," she finally snorts after a beat.

"I would never kid about such a serious matter!" he scoffs, sounding wounded and offended.

She'd laugh at his affronted expression over something so silly as finding her a Christmas tree if she wasn't so dead set on winning this argument. She's fully aware that Austin has a way of getting her to agree to just about anything with not much more than an adorable, boyish grin or a devilishly handsome smirk. It doesn't help that they happen to be his two default expressions, either.

And that's before his smooth talking even came into play. And who can forget those smoldering eyes with the ridiculously long, thick lashes?

"Austin, I'm not getting a Christmas tree," she reiterates, keeping a stern mask in place. "Christmas is _tomorrow._ I am not going to go through the trouble of finding one, decorating it, and then putting everything back in less than two days! That would be a complete waste of my time."

He crosses his arms and glares down at her. "Ally, don't be a _scrooge_."

An eye twitches. The calm, rational part of her knows that he's taunting her, trying to get a rise out of her so he can manipulate her like mold-able jello into doing whatever he wanted. The everything-else-part of her takes the bait.

"Wha—hey! I'm not a scrooge!"

She's not proud those words come out as a sputtering whine.

The blond shrugs, casually and unconvinced. "I dunno. You've got no Christmas tree, no Christmas lights, no Christmas decorations... and I have yet to hear you playing or singing along to any Christmas songs, come tp think of it," he says with a morose sigh. "Sounds like a scrooge to me," he challenges with a quirked eyebrow.

Ally takes a deep, calming breath. "Austin, a Christmas tree this late into the holidays would be pointless," she tries to reason maturely.

"_Scrooge!_" he wheezes dramatically, under the guise a fake, over-exaggerated cough and behind a fisted hand.

Another deep breath, in and out. "We're not going to go hunting for a tree. Besides, all the places are closed because of Christmas Eve!" she reasons further. "Where am I going to get a tree?" she adds impatiently with a roll of her eyes.

"There's a park a few blocks down," he smirks, and a demented sort of evil starts to glint in his dark eyes. "The trees there are looking extra Christmas-y this year." His eyebrows wiggle up and down in an attempt to entice her.

His observation about the trees makes her jaw drop. "That's practically public destruction!" she cries.

He frowns at that. "That's a bit dramatic," he says with a mild scoff, pursing his lips at her. "It's really more like we're relocating nature," he corrects her airily with a firm nod.

She shakes her head back and forth, the ends of her ponytail tickling the back of her neck. "This is a bad idea."

"Only if we get caught!" he points out. "And who's going to catch us? Nobody's going to be at the park on Christmas Eve!" A none too subtle tone of _duh_ laces through his voice and he raises an eyebrow at her determinedly.

She worries her bottom lip. "Can't you just go and bring me back one by yourself?" she suggests pathetically. She knows the answer before the words even leave her mouth.

He snorts at her incredulously and walks around to sit on the couch. "And where's the fun in that? I need a partner in crime!" he enthuses as he flings an arm around her shoulders and pulls her flush against his side.

She flinches from the touch and tries to wiggle free. An annoyed sigh escapes her when his long, calloused fingers clamp down firmer around her upper arm. "I don't like the sound of 'crime'," she whines, smacking a flaily hand at his fingers uselessly. She tries to lean as far away as his hold on her will allow, which is, admittedly, not very far.

"Oh, c'mon!" he laughs, rolling his head up and over to study her closely. "Let's go steal a Christmas tree from a kid's park," he smirks wickedly at her.

Her breath catches and she stares back at him. Along with her doe-eyed reflection, she can see the familiar sparks of mischief in his dark eyes. She gulps nervously and opens her mouth, only to close it again half a second later. She wants to tell him that is the single, most ridiculous sentence she's ever heard uttered to her but it seems like she can't quite get her mouth to work properly.

And then his eyes soften a bit at her unsure silence. "C'mon," he repeats, a little quieter than before. "We'll steal a tiny one," he promises in a low whisper, holding up his forefinger and thumb scant inches apart. "_Teeny tiny_," he squeaks, narrowing an eye and making pinchy motions at her eye level.

She groans and her head drops like a dead weight into her awaiting palms. "I'm _so_ going to regret this," she mumbles huffily.

"_Yes!_" Austin cheers uproariously. "Then go get dressed and let's find you a tree!" he shouts eagerly. He leans over and impulsively places a quick kiss to her temple out of sheer excitement.

Ally freezes and robotically turns her head to face him, cheeks reddening at an alarming pace. "Just—just get out of here!" she sputters with an outstretched arm pointed at her door.

Austin laughs brightly at her embarrassment and gets up off the couch. "Come get me when you find the right tree-stealing outfit!" He gives her a saucy wink as he flees her living room before she can throw a couch cushion at him. "Try to meet me in five!" he calls as he exits her apartment.

She sinks down lower into her couch a she hears the door shut closed. Her hands rest on her face, fingers spread over her cheeks so she can feel the heat radiating off of them. She groans and gets up, ignoring the somersaults her stomach makes as she shuffles dejectedly in the direction of her bedroom.

Ally tries to ignore the lingering feel of Austin's lips pressed against her temple so she can focus on an appropriate outfit to wear for the dangerous task of relocating some nature. From a kid's park.

_A skirt's probably out of the question_, she thinks sarcastically to herself as her fingers skim and skip over various articles of clothing hanging in her closet.

She pulls out a pair of comfy, well-worn jeans with a darker wash and a simple, red t-shirt. She quickly changes into the new outfit and grabs her keys and cellphone, pocketing the items as she leaves her apartment.

Quickening her pace until she's standing in front of Austin's door, she takes a deep breath to collect herself and then knocks rapidly with tight, white knuckles. She chews on her bottom lip anxiously as she waits for her blond-haired partner.

She purposefully ignores the 'in-crime' part.

Seconds later, the door opens up and Austin's smiling face is looking down at her instead of his seasonal wreath. She hates to admit it, but that stupid smile of his actually calms her racing heart, if only by a little.

"Ready?" he whispers as his smile grows more devious.

"No," she admits with a pained swallow.

"_Awesome._"

* * *

Despite the fact that the park is easily within walking distance, Austin and Ally hop into his car and take the five minute drive there.

Because, Austin is quick to point out, they need a getaway car. And it'd be easier transporting the relocated piece of nature in a car than to carry it cumbersomely back to Ally's apartment on a walk.

But mostly the first reason, of course.

"So how exactly are we going to _take_ the tree?" Ally questions as she turns to look at him as he starts to drive out of the parking lot of the building complex.

"Relocate," he automatically corrects.

She humors him and amends her previous statement with, "How exactly are we going to 'relocate' the tree, then?"

"I have a saw in the trunk of my car," he says with an easy smile.

"That's not exactly what I want to hear when I'm alone in a car with a guy that I've only gotten to know over the past few days," she says dryly.

He chuckles at that. "I've been meaning to return it to my dad, but I keep forgetting to," he explains with a shrug.

"What were you even using it for? Wait, do I even want to know?" she asks with a crinkle of her nose.

"I like to kill hookers in my spare time," he answers airily.

"Ha ha," she snorts sarcastically. But she tenses up ever so slightly, unable to help the tiny feeling of dreadful paranoia seeping through her.

Although, if her insanely attractive and crush-worthy neighbor ended up being a serial killer, it would effectively end her slight infatuation with him, so there's that plus.

But she'd never been that lucky, so...

Austin laughs and it stirs her from her inane thought process. "My dad and I were doing some yard work for my uncle a while back. He had to leave early so I took the saw home with me. Had it ever since." He gives her a quick glance before refocusing on the road ahead of them. "There, now can you breathe easy?"

She does, actually, breathe easier as she relaxes back into her seat. "My breathing's fine, thank you," she shoots back defensively.

He snorts and shakes his head. "Even if I was some insane murderer, why would my weapon of choice be a _saw?_ Seriously. That's one of the dumbest murder weapons, ever. It'd be so awkward to carry and to use. And it'd be annoying to dismember someone so I don't think I'd be doing that, either."

"Oh my God," she mutters under her breath. She closes her eyes and rests her forehead against the cool window. "We're not having this conversation," she deadpans out loud.

"What would you use?" he asks curiously, looking over to her for a brief moment.

"_Not having it._"

He snickers to himself and they continue the drive in silence, with Austin humming happily to himself and Ally watching the sights roll by with her forehead still pressed against the window.

It's not much longer before Austin parks his car and calls out, "We're here!" He spreads his arms out wide at the completely empty parking lot. "No one's here, just like I told you," he points out, smug expression in place.

Ally exhales resignedly at the thought of what is about to go down and unbuckles her seat belt. "Hooray," she manages tonelessly. She crosses her arms and leans back to stare at him full on. "So what's the plan, exactly?" she asks with a perfectly arched brow.

He grins, his shrug light and casual. "Walk around for a bit and when you pick out the prettiest tree, we'll _chop _it down!" he enthuses, making a little karate chop to emphasize his point. "Sound good?"

"No," she grunts grumpily. "Let's just get this over with." A heavy sigh accompanies the weary tone of her voice and it makes Austin's grin widen.

They step out of the car and Austin stretches briefly. "C'mon!" he laughs excitedly, clapping his hands together. And then he sets off in the direction of the park.

"Austin."

He stops mid skip and swivels around to face her. "What?"

She gestures with a limp finger behind her shoulder. "The saw?" she deadpans around the back of her other hand, held up against the corner of her mouth.

He blinks. "Oh."

She rolls her eyes at his sheepish expression and places her hands on her hips cocked to the side, sassy and full of attitude. "This is _your_ plan, genius."

"I don't need your lip!" he quips, running to the trunk of his car. He opens it and pulls out the saw. He blinks at the tool in his hands, blinks at her, blinks back at the saw. "... Man, this is going to be awkward to explain if we run into anyone," he grunts with furrowed brows.

"You're just now realizing that?" she asks dryly through a heavy-lidded gaze. She feels the beginnings of a headache starting to form, right between her brows.

"Look, I may not have entirely thought this through. But I'm not saying that. Nobody here is saying that."

"_I'm_ saying that," she grumbles under her breath.

He looks at her, hand to his heart, wounded pain in his eyes, dejected pout on his lips. "You're not a very supportive partner," he complains.

She rolls her eyes again and walks around to join him at the tail end of the car. "Do you have something you can wrap it up in?" she asks tiredly, peering into his trunk.

There's a raggedy, old t-shirt balled up in the back of her corner and she picks it up gingerly between a forefinger and thumb, with a disgusted wrinkle of her nose completing the picture of displeasure. "Um. There's this?" Her eyes flick from the torn and stained piece of clothing to Austin's face. "Why is this so dirty? And why is it in your trunk?" Curiosity seeps into her voice and she regards him with a confused look.

"Perfect!" He takes the shirt from her and wraps it around the saw carefully and slowly. "I was working on my car a couple months back and it was hot so I just took it off. Ended up using it as an oil rag," he remembers with a laugh. "Totally forgot it was in here!"

There's more junk inside and Ally shakes her head. She silently studies all the different objects and items littering the trunk and she giggles lightly. "Wow, you've got, like, a mini junkyard back here," she teases.

Austin groans and shuts it with one quick movement. "I know," he winces, mildly embarrassed. "I really need to clean it out sometime." He turns to her and holds up the poorly concealed saw. "But not today!" he grins. With a jerk of his head to gesture at her to follow, he makes his way out of the parking lot.

Ally rolls her eyes but obediently steps into place behind him. There's a marked path with a concrete sidewalk around the entire park, circling an island of playground equipment. Austin cuts across it all. She blinks and keeps up, looking around at everything they pass; swing sets, monkey bars, a giant slide, a rounded climbing structure reminiscent of an igloo.

"Uh, where are we going?" she finally speaks up, now that they're on the other side of the park. At this point, there's not much park left but he hasn't stopped in the least.

He points a few feet ahead of them, towards a wooded area on the outskirts of the park. "The woods back there. That's where the trees are."

A tiny pang of fear intermixed with paranoia courses through her veins. "Um. Can I hold the saw?" she asks with a forced chuckle, trying to brush it off like a joke. Her nervous laughter and jumpy eyes give her away, though.

He comes to a standstill and she almost bumps into his back from the abrupt stop. He slowly turns around to face her, bemused brow raised high. "Really?" he deadpans as he studies her. "You think I'm going to kill you?" The words fall from his lips at a slow pace, clearly trying to point out how crazy she sounds without stating the opinion out right.

"No!" she cries hurriedly with an emphatic shake of her head. "It's just... you know... I'd feel better if _I_ got to hold... the potential murder weapon," she coughs slightly, eyes skipping to the saw and then back to his. She plasters an awkward smile on her lips. "Please?"

"If it'll make you feel better..." Austin echoes with a roll of his eyes. He carefully hands her the saw. "Here," he says with a wry smile.

"Thanks," she says with a relieved sigh as she takes hold of the wrapped item gently. "Okay! I'm ready," she beams at him happily as her shoulders finally relax.

He gives a small scoff, half-exasperated and half-amused. With a shake of his head, he turns to face the woods again. "Let's just go," he chuckles lightly.

She hurries to meet his long strides so they're side by side instead of her trailing behind. "You know I don't actually have any Christmas decorations at home, right?" she suddenly blurts out.

"I have some," he says reassuringly.

Ally gives him an odd look. "I'm surprised you care so much about all the little details about Christmas," she mutters. She sounds mildly annoyed, but the admission is honest.

He gives her a carefree shrug. "I dunno. I think it's fun," he laughs. "I'm not getting any younger but it makes me feel like a kid again. You know?" He turns to look at her.

Ally hesitates, takes in the gleam of innocence in his eyes, the grin of childish wonder across his lips. "I guess," she finally murmurs under her breath as she looks away.

"What about you?" he presses with an eyebrow arching upward. "You claim you're not a scrooge, but you're still pretty scrooge-y." He tilts his head to the side. "Although, I guess if I had to spend the holidays stuck at home while my friends and family were out of town, I'd be pretty bummed, too" he admits. He narrows his eyes at her after a moment of thought. "But for some reason, I don't think that's the full story."

She exhales in annoyance and a curl of hair floats out of her face. "Just because I don't partake in most Christmas traditions with the enthusiastic glee of a giddy kid doesn't make me a scrooge," she mumbles. "I'm an _adult_," she emphasizes. "I'll go to the family dinners, worry and stress about the perfect presents, bake some cookies and drink some eggnog. I don't need the decorations and the commercialized symbolism and the annoying songs that play over and over and over and even when they stop, they're _still_ playing over and over and over but it's so much worse because it's in your _brain_ and you can't shut it off!" she rants in frustration, gaining speed and ferocity toward the end.

He lets out a low, drawn-out whistle as an eyebrow slowly quirks upward. "Sorry I asked," he says as he bites back a smile. He happens to be secretly glad that she hadn't been passionate enough to start swinging around the saw mid-rant.

Ally winces as her mind replays her speech. "Great. Now you think I sound bitter and crazy."

"But I also think you're cute and funny," he laughs affectionately. "It makes up for the bitter and crazy," he promises with a sly smirk.

Her face burns from the compliments and teasing remarks. "Shut up," she mumbles, always at a loss of words when he turns on the charm like that.

He laughs again and he looks around the wooded area, now that they've finally reached it, anyway. The sparse amount of trees are spaced out fairly well and they have the limited range of small to medium sizes. If Ally's being completely honest, they mostly consist of bare little branches and look entirely too pathetic.

"These trees are awful," she says, a tinge of sadness actually seeping into her voice.

"Yep, these trees belong to poor men," Austin sighs with a slow shake of his head. He folds his arms across his chest and leans comfortably against a tree. "So! Which one are you gonna pick?"

She scans around the area, examining tree after tree for a worthy one. "I don't know," she mumbles with a bite of her lip. "They're all pretty sad-looking." Ally gives him an adorable pout and widens her doe eyes. "Austin, these trees are seriously depressing. Help me pick one," she pleads.

He sighs again and pushes himself off the tree. "Oh, alright," he concedes. "We'll get you the best Charlie Brown tree ever," he nods with promise.

She rolls her eyes and continues scanning the area. "This isn't exactly how I planned on spending my Christmas Eve," she huffs, eyebrows furrowing in concentration as she tries to picture the trees in her living room, adorned with cheery decorations in an attempt to make them more appealing.

It only sort of works.

Austin stops a few feet in front a tree a little ways to her left. "This is the one," he calls out to her confidently, eying the thing up and down in a pleased manner.

Ally cocks her head to the side and walks over to join him. She stops in front of him and stares at the tree. It's not awful, and she likes it well enough. The tree is only a bit taller than Austin and she looks over at him curiously.

"Are you going to cut down the whole thing?"

He snorts incredulously at her. "Like it'll fit in my car," he scoffs sarcastically. He takes a step or two to the left, closes the space between them as he crouches down so he's at her eye level. He wraps an arm over her shoulder and around the side of her head. He brings his hands together in front of their faces to make a border around the top of the tree using his thumbs and forefingers. "Look," he murmurs gently as his face settles in next to hers.

They're cheek to cheek and she blushes at the close proximity, but she looks through the makeshift frame, squinting an eye just like Austin.

It is actually kind of perfect.

He turns his head to watch her look through his fingers. The corners of his lips curve up into an easy, soft smile and his eyes study her closely. "Well?"

"It's perfect," she admits in a quiet whisper. She turns her head to smile at him in approval and the tip of her nose brushes gently against his. Her eyes widen in alarm, not expecting to meet his dark brown eyes and boyish smile. She swallows thickly and her breathing stills as she fights to keep her gaze steady on his.

Austin's smile widens and his eyes bore into hers, brown matching brown. "I make you nervous, don't I?" he chuckles quietly against her lips.

"More than I care to admit," she whispers back breathlessly as she gives him a shaky smile.

He looks a bit guilty as his eyes search through hers. "I don't mean to."

"I know." A timid bite of her lip.

His eyes dart to her lips, lingers for a second, and then skips back up to meet her gaze. A flicker of disappointment passes through them before he slowly pulls away from her, turning to focus on the tree in front of them. The arm draped around her slowly snakes back from its perch along her shoulders and his fingertips lightly graze the small of her back before it completely drops, limp by his side.

She watches him silently, sees his Adam's apple bob up and down in a hard swallow. She's suddenly hit with a wave of regret and disappointment so hard, it's near overwhelming. No longer wanting to study his perfect profile, she turns forward to face the tree as well.

"I, uh, I should cut down the tree," he mutters hoarsely, holding his hand out for the saw, eyes trained resolutely ahead at the tree.

She jumps at the gentle nudge from his outstretched hand and tentatively places the concealed saw into his awaiting palm. "Oh! Um, here," she says weakly.

He twists his lips into a smile and throws it over his shoulder at her as he stalks toward the tree. "Just give me a moment," he says with a light laugh.

It's not as genuine as the one she's grown accustomed to over the past few days but it does ease the sad ache in her heart a little. "Be careful!" she shouts after him, adopting a worried tone.

"I'll be fine!" he promises as he stops in front of the tree. "If Kevin in Home Alone can do it, then so can I!" he says as he rolls his eyes at her concern.

"I'm not lugging your wounded ass back to the car!" she warns.

"Okay, okay!" he shouts and the laugh that bounces and echoes back to her is much closer to his usual, merry one.

She grins and watches him set to work. Austin unwraps the saw and sets off to work on cutting down the top three feet of the tree. A hand grips the top and he moves the saw back and forth is steady, even motions.

She's glad for the distraction of watching him work. She fights back a blush from the memories of his close proximity all day. From baking in her kitchen, to cuddling on her couch during the movie, to their moment mere minutes ago. She runs a hand over her face and tries not to let Austin's complete inability to understand personal space bother her.

She pushes the hope of any of it possibly meaning anything out of her mind as well.

It isn't long before Austin is holding the saw in one hand, the tree in the other, and he shouts out her name to let her know he's finished. Her name leaving his mouth jolts her out of her thoughts and she snaps her eyes back to him.

He grins at her and sets the tree gently on the ground as he re-wraps the saw. He picks up the tree after the saw if completely wrapped with the t-shirt. "You wanna hold the tree or the saw?" he jokes, holding up both things, one in either hand.

Ally rolls her eyes good-naturedly at his teasing tone. "I guess I can learn to trust you, so give me the tree," she laughs as she holds out her hands.

He grins and holds it out to her. "Careful," he says as she takes it from his grasp.

"Got it," she murmurs with a small smile.

They make the trek back to his car in comfortable silence. Ally is honestly a little bit shocked that they're getting away with this so easily. While it's not like she had been expecting the police to jump out of some bush to gun them down, she's still surprised that the mission went as smoothly as it did. She's just glad that Austin had been right when he had pointed out that the park was sure to be empty.

Austin opens the car to his backseat and unwraps the saw, laying down his rag of a t-shirt for Ally to set the tree on. He throws the saw into his trunk and stops at the driver's door. He lays an arm over the top of the car and peers over the roof to look at her. He taps out a rhythm with a finger and it catches her attention. The blank look on her fair features turn inquisitive and he smiles at her.

A sturdy wind whips by, plays with the ends of her pony tail, makes the tendrils that frame her face dance about. She grows uneasy and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "What?" she calls impatiently, wanting no part of this staring contest he is forcing on her.

"Nothing. Just glad I got to spend the day with you," he admits with a flirty smile.

The words sink in and wide, surprised eyes blink in rapid succession. Her cheeks glow red-hot and she hopes he won't notice. "Shut up," she mutters. "You practically elbowed your way into my life," she snorts unattractively.

He shrugs and breaths in deep, filling his lungs with the crisp air. "You let me stay," he grins pointedly and a playful spark comes to life in his eyes.

The hotness in her cheeks burns even hotter and she's scared that pretty soon, her face will match her red shirt. She sputters at him for a quick moment. "Sh—shut up! You were like this—this _puppy_ that I couldn't get rid of!"

"So you think I'm cute," he accuses her.

Her eyebrows furrow at his statement. "What?" she asks in a harsh tone, confused by the sudden topic change.

"It's a universal fact that puppies are cute and if you're comparing me to one, then you clearly think that _I'm_ cute," he states cockily, as if this was an obvious bit of knowledge that she should have already possessed.

She stares at him, expressionless. "I am this close to walking home," she says flatly, holding up fingers that are already pinched together.

Austin laughs and slides into his seat. "Okay, okay, I'll shut up the rest of the way home," he promises.

"I don't think you're cute!" she protests pathetically as she follows suit in a grumpy manner.

He shrugs and smirks at her. "I don't think you're cute, either," he shoots back as they start to buckle their seat belts.

The wink he gives her makes her want to strangle herself with her own hair.

* * *

Ally's laugh echoes throughout the elevator for a second before the doors open, the melodic sound now spilling out into the hallway.

Austin groans as he steps out first, with Ally trotting along behind him with the tree clutched to her chest. "I was expecting my cousin to come by! It's the only reason why I opened the door in a towel," he says defensively with a noticeable flinch from the embarrassing memory.

"Wait, wait!" she cries, holding up a dismissive hand. "How many girls were outside your door?" she manages to choke out through her laughter.

His eyes roll up to the ceiling as he tries to remember back to that day. "Like, eight?" he guesses thoughtfully with scrunched up features. "I don't remember..."

"Why were there so many of them?" she questions curiously, still laughing silently to herself.

His eyebrows furrow and he sighs slightly as he recalls more of the memory. "Well, they were all trying to welcome me to the building and I mean... I think they meant well. They all brought food and drinks and stuff."

Ally shakes her head at him. "Oh, man. That is hilarious!" she continues with yet another round of laughter.

He gives her a flat stare. "No sympathy, huh? You're a cruel soul, Ally Dawson."

"Oh, poor you," she scoffs with a roll of her eyes. "You're so attractive and all these gorgeous women wanna sleep with you. Boo-hoo." She raises an eyebrow at him. "You hear that? You hear how ridiculous that sounds?"

He feigns a look of distressed pain at her, clutching his hands to his chest in woeful despair. "But none of them want me for my personality," he sighs with faux-heartbreak. His bottom lip juts out and his chin wobbles pathetically at her.

Ally lets loose an incredulous snort as they slow to a stop outside his apartment door. "Just go get your extra Christmas decorations," she deadpans, still completely unsympathetic.

Austin nods as he unlocks his door. "Okay, I'll be right back," he promises as he leaves the door open and rushes inside. "You wanna come in?" he shouts as he disappears around the corner.

Ally leans against the wall outside Austin's door as she waits patiently. "I'll just wait outside!" she calls back, sticking her head around the door frame. She rolls her eyes slightly as she hears a muffled shout of _Suit yourself!_

The door leading to the stairs open abruptly and she cranes her neck, looking to see who it is out of curiosity.

If it's someone from Austin's posse, she'll just do a quick dive into his apartment for safety.

She breathes a sigh of relief when it simply turns out to be another resident living on the same floor, a good-looking guy in his mid-twenties that Ally had spoken to on a handful of occasions. He lives in 507, right across from Austin. She's ready to exchange a friendly 'hello' if need be, when he strolls to a stop right in front of her.

"Ally?"

"Oh, um, hi, Connor," she shoots back lightly, suddenly feeling rather awkward due to the tree she has clutched to her chest. She plasters a pleasant enough smile on her lips and shifts the tree nervously in her arms.

He gives her a bemused expression. He points at the plant in her grasp. "Is... that your Christmas tree?" he asks, his voice holding mixed tones of laughter and confusion.

She winces. "Yeaaah," she answers with a sheepish laugh. And then she rolls her eyes half-heartedly. "This idiot over here," she pauses to jerk a thumb over her shoulder at Austin's apartment, "insisted on it. You know, for tomorrow."

Connor blinks at her. "Oh, you mean Austin?" he asks after something seems to sink in. To her surprise, he sounds a bit disappointed.

Ally's eyebrows furrow and she doesn't know what to make of his sudden mood change. "Is... something wrong, Connor?" she asks tentatively.

He gives a small sigh. "So, the rumors are true? You and Austin are dating?"

Her eyes widen. "Um, _what?_" is her incredibly intelligent reply.

The gossip had spread _outside_ of Austin's group of crazed fangirls? Okay, things had gone on too far, then.

She hurriedly shakes her head. "No, no! We're really not—"

"It's too bad," he interrupts, giving her a wistful look. "I kind of had a crush on you," he admits with a small, embarrassed laugh.

Her eyes widen even further at his sudden confession. The fact that there was another human being on this earth that had a crush on her besides Randy Raz takes a minute for her to process.

"Um, _what?_"

It was so intelligent the first time around, it bared a repeat, obviously.

He winces guiltily at himself. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't be saying stuff like that when you're standing outside your boyfriend's apartment."

Austin finally makes his grand entrance, holding a cardboard box of Christmas decoration. He shakes it around and stares delightedly at the ornaments and tinsel inside. "Okay, okay! Found—"

"You had a _crush_ on me?" she wheezes in absolute confusion, looking almost horrified.

Austin raises an eyebrow and looks up from the box. His eyes dart from Ally's wide-eyed surprise to Connor's wistful expression aimed at the young woman. "So... what's going on here?" he asks coolly.

Ally jumps at the sound of his voice. Once she collects herself, she looks up at him in relief. "Nothing. But could you please tell Connor—"

"Tell him what?" he cuts in impatiently, glaring in mild annoyance at the other male.

Connor raises an eyebrow at that. "No need to be snippy, Austin," he says tightly.

Ally frowns at the suddenly tense atmosphere. "Um, guys?" She glances between the two men and subconsciously clutches her pathetic, little tree closer to her chest, like some sort of security blanket. "Is... everything okay?" she asks tentatively.

"Everything's great," they say in clipped tones. Their eyes harden due to speaking in unison and Austin's eyes narrow just slightly at this Connor guy who apparently has a crush on Ally.

Connor's gaze slips down to the box in Austin's arms. "Christmas decorations?" he muses out loud. And then he glances back at the tree in Ally's hold. It all clicks in his head. "Oh, to decorate Ally's tree, huh?" he concludes.

"No, to decorate your mother's flying pterodactyl," Austin deadpans.

The dark-haired male glares harder at the blond. "Funny," he says, sounding utterly unamused.

"Austin!" Ally hisses, elbowing him in the side. She turns to Connor and gives him an apologetic smile. "Sorry! He's just kidding. But yeah! We're about to go decorate my Christmas tree. All rather last minute, but oh well," she says with a laugh.

The sound of her angelic laughter does a strange number on the men vying for her attention and they both relax quite noticeably.

Connor regards her with an overly sweet smile and Austin's left eye twitches at the sight. "Sounds like fun. I love decorating Christmas trees," he says and the sincerity in his voice makes Austin want to scoop out the dude's eyes with a melon baller.

She blinks and tilts her head to the side. "Oh, would you like to help us decorate?" she asks politely with an amiable smile.

Connor immediately lights up at the offer, smirking just a tad. "I'd lo—"

"_Nooo!_" Austin cries out frantically, a look of horror marring his usually handsome features. When he's met with two baffled stares, he coughs and focuses on regaining his composure. He shifts the box to his hip and throws his newly freed arm around Ally's shoulders, pulling her in tight. "I mean, Ally, you really want Colleen over here to interrupt us?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at her.

"My name's 'Connor'," he states dryly. "Also, that's the name of a woman," he tacks on thoughtfully in a sarcastically helpful manner.

Ally blinks rapidly at Austin's suggestive tone and expectant look. "Interrupt what?" she whispers back, sounding thoroughly confused.

He rolls his eyes at her naivete. He quickly shuts the door behind them and turns to look at Connor. "We're not interested in your help. And your Christmas wreath is _awful_, so clearly, you have bad taste in decorating. We can't have your shame and ugly ruining Ally's tree." And then Austin starts ushering an absolutely baffled Ally hurriedly down the hall, toward her apartment. "Plus, you're terrible, face-wise," he adds immaturely as they pass him.

"Austin!" she sputters with wide eyes. She tires to look at an insulted Connor from over her shoulder. "Oh, he doesn't mean that!" she calls apologetically. "You're really quite—"

"Hideous! She means hideous!" Austin interjects quickly, the grip around her shoulders tightening. He looks behind them and sees that Connor is finally gone with a loud _slam! _of his apartment door, making his ugly wreath rattle in its wake. He releases his grip on Ally, who'd been trying to wiggle free for the majority of their walk.

"What was that?" she demands loudly, fuming at him, now that they're outside her door. She gently places the tree in the box and pulls out her keys. "Why were you so rude to poor Connor?" she asks as she glares at him while unlocking her door.

"He was about to hit on you!" Austin cries defensively as Ally opens the door and meets him in her living room.

She blinks plainly at him. "So?"

Austin sputters and wheezes at her incoherently and he almost drops the box. He quickly sets it down near the corner of her coffee table. He straightens up and eyes her in disbelief. "Were you... would you... did you _want_ him to?" he chokes out.

"Well... I probably would have turned him down," she admits with a thoughtful furrow of her brows.

His eyes widen at that. "Wait, really?" he asks, sounding relieved as a look of joy spreads over his face.

Ally rolls her eyes. "Connor's nice... but... that's it," she sighs with a wrinkle of her nose. "There's not much else there," she adds with a one-shouldered shrug.

He gives her an amused look with a dirty smirk. "Why, Allison Elizabeth Dawson—"

"That's not my middle name," she interrupts expressionlessly in a bored tone.

"—I didn't have you pegged as someone who liked 'em bad boys," he snickers with suggestively waggling brows.

Ally flushes and smacks him in the chest. "It's not like that!" she protests. "It's... I mean," she breaks off with an irritated sigh, trying to gather up her thoughts. "Look, I'm not interested in dating a guy if he's _just_ nice, you know? There's tons of nice guys out there. That's not necessarily a deal-making kind of trait. And let's pretend I did give him a chance just because he was nice. Connor and I live on the same floor! It could be really awkward if things didn't work out."

"So what you're saying is... there's no _chemistry_," Austin summarizes with a playful smirk.

She freezes at the comment, takes a moment to let the words sink in. Her head tilts side to side in careful consideration as she realizes Austin wasn't completely wrong. She and Connor had never quite clicked, not in the way that she and—she quickly aborts that thought and swallows nervously.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that," she finally agrees, as she refocuses on Austin. "I've never really walked away from him wanting nor needing to know more about the guy," she confesses. She thinks over her words and winces. "Oh gosh, was that a mean thing to say?" she asks guiltily as she worries her bottom lip.

Austin chuckles to himself with an enthusiastic shake of his head. "No, not at all," he says lightly with a nonchalant air. "That's a _great_ thing to say," he adds with a happy smirk.

She frowns at his near giddy expression. "Why are you so pleased about this?" Ally asks, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"No reason." He throws up his hands and gives a defensive, innocent shrug.

She rolls her eyes decides not to waste her time trying to pick apart Austin's most likely bizarre mind. She plucks her little tree out of the box, instead. "Well, in that case... Let's decorate this little sucker," she murmurs resignedly.

Ally sits down, cross-legged, near am empty space in a corner of her living room. She stands the tree up and lets go, watches in deadpan as it topples over without a base attached to the bottom. She raises an eyebrow and looks to Austin, sitting down next to her with their knees touching. "What now, genius? It doesn't even stand up right."

He brings a closed fist to his chin, lips quirking in thought. "I don't know," he says in a slow and careful tone.

"Do you have a base for it?" At a sheepish shake of his head, Ally frowns. "Then what are we going to do?"

"Lean it awkwardly against the wall?" he suggests with a laugh.

She can't help the little bubble of exasperated laughter that leaves her mouth and she shakes her head at him. "Why not?" she muses with a wry smile. "It's already pretty sad looking, anyway." She looks into the box to examine the different assortment of ornaments. She picks out a rounded one that's purple and green, smaller than her already tiny palm. She stands the tree back up and holds it up with one hand. With the other, she carefully places the ornate ball on the tree.

Austin picks out another ornament the same size and hangs it on a limp branch, near the bottom. He chuckles and taps at the shiny, scarlet sphere, watches it swing back and forth lightly. "I like it," he murmurs. "It's got character," he says decidedly, tilting his head to the side appreciatively.

A corner of her lips twitches upward and she pulls out some tinsel to wrap around the tree. "I suppose that's one way of putting it."

He hums in agreement and they spend the rest of the time decorating with murmurs of approval, silent giggling, and furtive glances to one another.

"And to top it off," Ally grins as she simultaneously elbows Austin and places a small angel tree topper on the tip. "Get it? Get it, Austin?" she sniggers to herself as she continues elbowing him in the side.

Austin face-palms and shakes his head. "That's... I can't even," he mumbles with a roll of his eyes as he cranes his neck to look at her. "That one was _painful_," he winces.

"I happen to be hilarious, Austin Moon," she says haughtily as she grabs the tree from him and precariously leans it against her wall. She tentatively pulls her hands away, making tiny _stay, stay_ motions before leaning back and examining their work. "Yay! We're done!" She turns to him with an excited grin, holding up a hand.

He laughs at her, but returns her high five enthusiastically. He studies the tree as well and gives a pleased nod. "It looks good," he compliments.

Ally beams at him, pride shining through.

"Look at how good your tree looks!" Austin leans back on his arms lazily. "See, we didn't need the help of that window-licker," he snorts with a roll of his eyes.

Her eyebrow raises bemusedly. "Window-licker?" she echoes incredulously. "What on earth is that?"

"You know," Austin says, gesturing with a hand in a vague, crazed sort of way. "Somebody who licks windows, like..." he trails off, plasters a dopey look on his face and his tongue darts out and he gives the air a little cat lick. "Like that," he states, in a way that's very matter-of-fact.

She stares at him, horrified and confused. "You're not well, are you?" she asks slowly.

He rolls his eyes. "Anyway, he would've been a horrible addition to our tree-decorating extravaganza," he decides conclusively.

Ally laughs and shakes her head exasperatedly. "His Christmas wreath wasn't _that_ bad," she grins, nibbling on the corner of her lip to keep from laughing again.

He lays down, looks over to her, and drums his fingers along his midsection absent-mindedly. He gives her a mischievous smirk. "We should _steal_ it," he whispers secretively.

She can't help but laugh at his ridiculous suggestion. "You're awful!"

"And then set it on _fire_," he adds determinedly.

Ally cups the side of her face and props her elbow on a knee, giving him one of her patented looks. "What are you?" she snorts. "Some sort of crazed kleptomaniac? Or are you a pyromaniac?" she murmurs, biting back a grin. "But since it was your idea to steal that guy over there, I'm guessing the former?" she jokes, pointing over at her little tree. "Either way, I draw the line at stealing Connor's wreath," she finally adds with a pointed look.

He grins. "You always such a stickler for rules, Dawson?" he murmurs.

"Always," she promises solemnly with a scrunch of her nose.

He shakes his head at her. "So if you don't want to steal the wreath, then what do you want to do?" He reaches over and gently taps on her knee with a finger. "I came up with the tree idea, so it's your turn to pick the next event."

She falters and her eyes dart around her living room, desperately trying to find something to do that's half as interesting as stealing a tree from the nearby park. "Um... uh..." she stutters under pressure.

Austin raises an eyebrow at her. "Wow. So nothing, huh?"

Slim shoulders droop in shamed disappointment. "How am I supposed to top tree-stealing?" she pouts.

"Didn't realize you were so competitive," he laughs.

"Well, got any more ideas, hotshot?" she huffs, crossing her arms at him.

"No, not really," he sighs honestly.

Ally gives a hum of discontent and shrugs. "It's okay. It couldn't be a nonstop par-tay-all-day, if you know what I mean," she says, her voice making strange, high-pitched noises on the rush of words in the middle of her sentence.

He eyes her oddly. "Riiight," he drawls slowly, sounding incredulous.

She blinks at him in innocent confusion. "What? Was it something I said?"

Austin opens his mouth and then quickly closes it, shaking his head. "Never mind," he says with a dry, amused chuckle.

Ally gives him an annoyed look and is about to pester him about his original thought when his phone goes off. When he doesn't immediately reach for it, her annoyed look turns into one of curiosity. "Um. Your ass is ringing," she points out helpfully.

He rolls his eyes and reaches for his back pocket. He looks at the screen and frowns at the caller. "It's not important," he mumbles gruffly, ready to put his phone away.

Ally leans over and swipes it out of his hand, impulsively answering it. "Hello?" she calls sweetly, taking her free hand and smooshing it against Austin's cheek, pushing his sputtering face in the opposite direction as his arms flail about, trying to snatch his phone back.

_Payback, ehehehe..._

She smirks into the phone. "Austin can't come to the phone right now," she sighs regretfully. "But I'll be sure to take a message!" she adds in an overly perky tone.

"Oh, uh, who's this?" a deep voice wonders curiously.

"A friendly neighbor!" she grins, weirdly glad to hear that the voice wasn't, in fact, female.

"Ally, Ally, _give it back_," Austin hisses against her hand as he twists his body toward her.

She doges his arms and moves to sit on his stomach. The bold choice shocks Austin enough to stop flailing at her and his eyes widen into saucers. She smirks at him and uses her knees to pin both his arms down to his sides, effectively straddling him.

"_Ally?_" Her name comes out somewhere between a choke and squeak. He swallows and she's pretty sure she's never seen his face this red before.

It's pretty adorable, actually.

"Anyway, sir, how can I help you?" she asks breathlessly into the phone.

"... Okay, I'm not even going to ask what all that noise was..."

Ally winces and decides to ignore the suggestive comment.

"Tell Austin he better show up at the party tonight or else I'm firing him."

"Party?" Ally's jaw drops and she looks at Austin in shock. "What party?" she blurts, aiming it at Austin, but her question still carries into the phone.

This snaps Austin out of his dazed stupor due to having a gorgeous girl straddling him and he rolls his eyes. He wiggles an arm free and snatches the phone out of her limp hand and holds it up to his ear. "Austin," he grunts, glaring at Ally exasperatedly.

Ally can't hear the other side of the conversation so she just nibbles at her bottom lip worriedly.

Austin rolls his eyes and chuckles. "Okay, okay. Fine. Yeah, uh-huh. It's okay if I bring a plus one, right? Alright, alright!" He chuckles again and gives a speedy good-bye before hanging up. He throws his phone to the side and looks up at Ally.

"You have a job?" she hisses in wonder, wide-eyed.

He blinks at her, confused by her fascinated horror. "Why does that seem so surprising?" he frowns.

"I thought you were, like, one of those myths from romantic comedies!" she says. At his flat, annoyed stare, she rolls her eyes and elaborates. "You know! One of those handsome bachelors that's always jobless but skates by in life on his charm and good looks."

He processes her words and squints at her thoughtfully. "Hmm... yeah, okay, I suppose I can take that as a compliment. Or maybe just that last part..."

"Well? What happened?" she asks nervously.

He rolls his eyes again. "That was my boss, Jimmy Starr."

She blinks in surprise. "From Starr Records?" she asks, clearly impressed. "What do you do for him?" she laughs. "Fetch him his morning coffee?" she teases.

He raises an eyebrow. "I'm one of his top music producers," he informs her dryly.

"Oh..." she trails off awkwardly in a small voice.

"Anyway, it was just Jimmy being dramatic," he says exasperatedly. "He's having a big Christmas party tonight and I _was _planning on skipping because last year was kind of lame," he sighs. "That's why I was trying to ignore the phone call," he explains wryly, looking at her pointedly.

She winces. "Sorry," she says sheepishly.

He smirks deviously at her. "Oh, but if I have to suffer through a boring party with my even more boring co-workers, I'm dragging you down with me," he chuckles darkly.

Her eyes widen and she gives a laugh of disbelief. "Oh, no. Nooo, thank you," she says with a firm shake of her head. "I'll just be on my couch, over there, curled up with a good book, if you need me. Which you won't, because you'll be at a record label owner's party." And with a short nod, she moves to get up, but Austin's big hands clamp down on her hips, holding her in place. Her eyes widen and she sputters at him incoherently, cheeks flaring up.

His smirk grows wicked and he applies a decent amount of pressure in his fingers against her flesh. "Oh no," he mutters hotly under his breath. "_You're going_," he decides, looking up at her through a heavy-lidded gaze.

She gapes at him, her impression of a fish happens to be dead on, and she gulps nervously as she tries, desperately, to ignore his thumbs on the bare skin above the waistband of her jeans. It takes her a long moment to regain her ability to speak. "C'mon, Austin. You don't wanna take me. I'm awkward and quiet, my hair's a mess, I haven't showered... and I'm pretty positive there's nothing in my closet that I could wear to a swanky party," she rattles off pleadingly.

He raises an eyebrow at her. "None of those were good reasons to stay home."

"Austin," she mumbles uncomfortably, "I don't want to go."

He sighs patiently. "The party isn't for a couple of hours. It starts at seven-thirty. You have more than enough time to get ready, and it's not nearly as 'swanky' as you'd believe," he says gently.

"Isn't this a work thing?" she tries, eyebrows furrowing.

"Kind of... but I'm allowed to bring a plus one! If you don't go, I'll be forced to make annoying small talk with my boring co-workers."

She hesitates and tilts her head to the side. "What... what are you going to wear, then?" she asks.

Austin grins up at her. "Probably jeans, a nice shirt, and a blazer," he laughs with a shrug. "Something simple."

"So I don't have to dress fancy?" she asks, sounding a mite perkier.

He chuckles up at her. "No, you don't," he promises. "Does that mean you'll go?"

Ally gives a dramatic sigh, shoulders sagging in relief as she eyes him resignedly. "I better not regret this," she warns.

He bites his lip excitedly for a moment as he stares at her. "It'll be fun, I promise," he murmurs softly, his smirk already reappearing on his face.

She inhales deeply and exhales slowly. "Meet you at seven?" she whispers quietly.

"It's a date."


	5. Chapter 5

So. We've reached the final chapter. I'm going to be honest with you guys. This is the only chapter that I had trouble with and while I don't think it completely resembles the tail end of a donkey, I'm not one hundred percent happy with it.

I know you guys want to get on to the chapter so you've probably already skipped all this. But on the off chance that you're still here, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all once again for your continued support. I had a lot of fun writing this fic—the most fun in ages, to be truthful—and I really didn't expect such an awesome response to it. But, like with my previous fics, you all continue to be amazing and so, so wonderful with your feedback.

This is, sadly, the end of Christmas Things. But I still want to mess around with these versions of Austin and Ally for a little while longer, because I'm selfish that way, and I was thinking about something like a bonus chapter involving a Q&A. Basically, if you guys have any silly or fun—or even serious—questions pertaining to the alternate universe I set up in Christmas Things, I'll answer them in character as Austin and Ally in an interview-y Q&A of sorts. So send them my way! Hopefully, I'll have enough to come up with something decent, haha.

Anyway, it's been quite the ride, and without further ado, the final chapter, gentle readers.

* * *

Ally finishes with the last curl of her hair and stares at herself, dissatisfied, in the mirror. With an exasperated smile and nonchalant shrug, she runs her fingers through her hair, and decides _Eh, good enough_.

She rolls her eyes and steps out of her bathroom when she hears a knock at the door. She hurries to answer it, grabs her purse along the way, and calls out, "Hang on, hang on!"

She opens the door to find Austin standing with his hands in his pockets, waiting patiently. It doesn't surprise her that he looks good in a white dress shirt and red, fitted blazer. It does, however, annoy her.

"Hey," he grins. Ally returns the greeting sullenly and he laughs. "You look nice," he compliments softly, taking in her simple cream-colored sweater and black skinny jeans.

"Thanks," she says with a shy smile. "And, um, so do you," she coughs as she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, keeping her eyes trained on her shoes, a nice pair of black ankle boots.

"Thank you." He gives her cocky grin, clearly pleased with himself. "Ready?"

"Not really," she shoots back, just to be difficult. She steps out and closes the door behind her, doubling checking to make sure she locked it before facing him with a resigned stare. "Let's get this over with."

Austin raises a bemused eyebrow at her. "Your enthusiasm never ceases to amaze me."

She flashes him a tight-lipped, forced smile of annoyance in response.

"There it is. There's that lovely smile," he coos sarcastically, booping her on the nose.

Ally finally breaks and gives him a genuine laugh. "Let's just go," she says with a smile and a playful elbow to his side.

* * *

They've long since entered the hotel and Austin leads the way to the ballroom rented out for the occasion while Ally follows dutifully behind.

They're about to round a corner when he suddenly halts and spins around in his tracks. "Wait, hold on," he orders as he holds up a hand.

She blinks rapidly and stumbles, having nearly crashed into him due to his abrupt stop. "What? What is it?" she asks, notes of curiosity and annoyance ringing in her question.

"What should we tell people?" he asks.

Her eyebrows knit together out of confusion. "What do you mean?"

Austin rolls his eyes and gestures impatiently between them. "About us. Like, what's our story?"

Her confusion merely grows. She can't help but think that their 'story' happens to be pretty straight forward. "We're friendly neighbors. And you were nice enough to invite me to your work party," she replies slowly and carefully, like her answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "You know, the truth?"

He blinks at her. "That's it?" He sounds disappointed, as if he was expecting more.

She frowns at him. "What did you have in mind...?" she asks suspiciously.

"We're just friends? On a friend-date? Or are we on a _real _date?" he rattles on, ticking off the different options on his fingers. His eyes narrow thoughtfully at her. "... Girlfriend/Boyfriend?" he tests carefully, gauging her reaction.

Her cheeks start to heat up and she runs a hand over her face. "Does it—does it really matter?" she hisses at him embarrassingly.

"I work with these people!" he points out. "We have to pick a story and stick with it!"

Ally rolls her eyes. "It's not like we're trying to come up with an airtight alibi!" she snaps with a glare. "Just tell everyone we're friends," she points out.

He hesitates and shifts his weight back and forth uncomfortably. "But what if somebody tries to hit on you?" he mumbles sullenly under his breath. His cheeks turn pink at his confession and he quickly averts his eyes.

She gives a loud, incredulous laugh. "Because _that's_ a serious concern," she snorts sarcastically.

Austin scowls in annoyance. "Have you _seen _you?" he shoots back with a roll of his eyes, gesturing up and down the length of her body.

Ally frowns and looks down at her modest, but definitely tight-fitting, sweater and black jeans. Her eyebrows furrow at her simple, classy outfit and she looks back up to meet his pointed glare. "What?" she asks, sounding absolutely clueless.

He pinches the bridge of his nose in irritation and groans. "Oh, never mind!" he snaps at her after he throws his head back dramatically.

She inhales sharply, trying to regain her patience. "Look, if somebody tries to hit on me, I'll just tell them that I'm here with you, okay? As your—your—" she breaks off waveringly and red colors her cheeks as uncertainty quickly takes over.

All traces of annoyance slips away from Austin's expression, and a slyness takes over. "My what?" he asks tauntingly, his familiar smirk starting to creep back across his lips.

"You _know_ what!" she cries, gesturing vaguely with her hands.

"My _what?_" he repeats in the same taunting manner, but this time, a hand comes up to cup an ear and he leans in toward her.

Her mouth works silently as she takes in his giddy delight. Her cheeks flare up even more and she bites the inside of her cheek for a second before exhaling. "Date, okay?" she finally bites out. "I'll just tell them I'm here as your date, alright?!"

A pleased smirk lights up his face. "I couldn't have asked for a lovelier date."

She rolls her eyes and gestures painfully toward Austin. "Can we—can we just go to the party now?" she cries exasperatedly, cheeks still stained with red.

His smirk widens at her. "You're so cute when you're embarrassed," he teases.

"Austin! Party!" she barks impatiently, pointing ahead of them. Her eyes are narrowed but the danger from them is diminished thanks to her sudden resemblance to a tomato.

He holds up his hands in mock surrender and turns away from her. "I'm going, I'm going," he sighs delicately as he leads the way again.

She follows a safe distance behind, her cool palms pressed against her heated cheeks.

Minutes later, they walk through the open doors of the rented ballroom. Austin tells her to wait a moment so he can clear them off the guest list, along with handing over their things to the coat check. She nods absent-mindedly, letting him take her purse, as her eyes widen in awe as they sweep around the room.

She takes in the giant ballroom, decorated accordingly for the celebration. An enormous tree resides in a corner of the room, decked out with grand ornaments and carefully arranged lights that glowed beautifully. There are two tables in the back, every inch covered and piled high with all sorts of food and refreshments, with smaller, round tables set out to sit down and eat. But while that's where the majority of the food is, there are waiters walking around offering appetizers and alcoholic beverages, as well. There's also a live band playing on a stage with a handful of couples taking up a space cleared to be a makeshift dance floor, not too far from the sitting area.

"This is quite the party, isn't it?"

The question makes her jump and pull her eyes away from a young couple dancing on the floor.

The man that had just spoken to her seems to notice her jumpiness and he sends her a sheepish look. "Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to startle you," he apologizes.

He looks a bit older, but still in his twenties, with sandy blond hair and blue eyes, but they're icy and sharp, not full of the warmth she prefers. He's much taller than her, but still shorter than Austin. He's dressed well enough, in khaki pants and a navy blue sweater. Admittedly, he's not bad-looking, but he probably wouldn't turn many heads.

A shy smile settles on her lips and she shakes her head lightly. "Oh no, it's fine. I was just taking a moment to look at everything," she says.

He grins and points at a corner. "Did you see the tree?"

Ally laughs politely and she finds herself wishing for Austin to hurry up. "Kind of difficult to miss."

"True, true," he laughs. And then he tilts his head to the side, studying her closely. He takes a step forward and Ally shrinks away a bit. "You know... I don't think we've met..."

She opens her mouth, ready to rattle off her name and the fact that she's here with Austin, when a heavy arm suddenly drapes itself around her shoulders.

"Hey, Jackson," a smooth, familiar voice cuts in. "So you've met my _date_, Ally, huh?"

She looks up, sees Austin's cool stare aimed at this Jackson character, and her shoulders sag from the weight of his arm, coupled with a sense of relief. She fits herself more comfortably against his side and shoots the new guy a forced smile. "I'm here with Austin!" she declares, wincing at how overly bright and chipper her voice comes out. A hand flies to his chest to complete the image of a dating couple.

"Oh." Jackson frowns, all traces of happiness and politeness disappearing within seconds as he eyes the good-looking pair. And then he grunts in displeasure and gestures limply with a finger over his shoulder. "Well, uh, I guess I better get going," he mutters. He doesn't even wait for them to say anything before he abruptly turns around to walk away.

She exhales deeply and fully relaxes at his departure. The hand resting on his chest falls away and she takes a step away from Austin, but his fingers clamp down on her shoulder and he pulls her into his side again. "Oof!" she utters as she stumbles a bit.

He cranes his neck to meet her irritated glare with a blank expression. "Two minutes. I leave you alone for two minutes and Jackson shows up out of nowhere, trying to hit on you," he states tonelessly.

"You don't know that!" she protests weakly. His eyebrow raises itself at her. She shifts her weight from foot to foot uncomfortably.

Austin rolls his eyes and he moves his hand from her shoulder to rest gently on the small of her back. "Let's just find a table to hang out at," he mutters as he starts to lead her through the crowd. She doesn't say anything and focuses on not bumping into anyone.

They make their way to a table and Austin pulls out a chair for her. As he pushes her chair in for her and she looks up at him over her shoulder, a small smile on her lips.

He grins down at her. "You're admiring how chivalrous I am, aren't you?" he says haughtily.

"I might have been," she admits with a wry smile. "But now I'm just thinking up ways on how to deflate your alarmingly huge ego."

The blond laughs and finally takes a step back. "I'll be right back. I'll get us some drinks."

She nods understandingly and her fingers start to drum out a light rhythm on the table as she waits patiently. She mindlessly watches the crowd, making sure not to let her eyes linger too long on any one person in particular; she makes a point to not be creepy or accidentally maintain awkward eye contact.

Ally is suddenly startled when a glass of champagne appears out of nowhere in front of her face. She blinks, wide-eyed, at the offered drink. She relaxes, rolls her eyes. "Very funny, you know I don't drink," she mutters.

"Oh. Well, this makes things awkward," a voice that was decidedly _not_ Austin's says.

She freezes and moves her head to the side, so that the glass is no longer blocking her view. From a few feet away, she spies Austin with two drinks in hand, talking to an elderly man. He looks bored, a fake smile in place, as he nods every so often to be polite, clearly feigning interest.

She gasps and her head snaps up to meet the stranger's green-eyed gaze. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" she blurts apologetically, with wide eyes. Her cheeks are colored pink from her embarrassing mistake.

He shrugs and shakes his black hair out of his eyes. "It's okay," he grins.

"I, uh, I thought you were my date," she admits with a sheepish smile. The words still leave a funny taste in her mouth.

"Your date?" The smile falters and he raises an eyebrow when she nods at him. "I don't see anyone around," he scoffs as he makes a show of scanning the area. "Did he just abandon a pretty thing like you?" he adds as he eyes her in a salacious manner.

She blinks rapidly. She quickly recovers and brushes the compliment off, since it came off more creepy than sincere thanks to his leering. "No," she replies with a shake of her head. "He's over there. It looks like somebody's coerced him into a conversation," she says with a chuckle as she points in Austin's direction. He looks irritated, the smile having been dropped and it seems like he's stopped nodding all together. She giggles slightly at his pained expression as he listens to the old man drone on and on.

Her company turns and follows her finger, eyes landing on the blond. He turns back to look at her, surprise written all over his face. "You're here with Austin Moon?" he asks incredulously.

Her brown eyes flick away from Austin and reach up to meet greens eyes again. "What's wrong with that?" she wonders out loud, not happy with the man's tone of voice.

"And how do you know Austin?" he demands instead, completely side-stepping her question.

She frowns and realizes that she really, really doesn't like this guy. "He's my neighbor and he invited me. I didn't have anything better to do, so I decided to go," she answers slowly.

So that's the abridged version, but she highly doubts this stranger would want to hear all the extra details about how Austin finally managed to get her to agree to go.

He raises an eyebrow. "So is he your neighbor or your date?" he asks pointedly.

Her mouth opens to answer but she relaxes when she sees Austin coming up behind the man in her line of perception.

"Her date, Dickhole. I'm her _date_," Austin growls as he comes to a stop.

The dark-haired male turns around and glares at the blond. "Austin," he says coldly.

"Dickhole," the blond shoots back with an overly charming smile.

Green eyes narrow in annoyance. "It's _Richard_," he grinds out through a clenched jaw.

"And your last name is Whole. Well, 'Dick' happens to be a popular nickname for Richard, correct? So that's Dick Whole. And then... Dickhole." Austin seems more than happy to explain his nickname for Richard, if his smirk is anything to go by.

Ally fights back a giggle at the truly unfortunate name.

Dickhole frowns and shoots Ally a look over his shoulder. He mutters something like '_Not worth it_' and stalks off.

Austin's eye twitches but Ally leans over, nearly falling out of her seat, to grab a hold of his wrist, effectively stopping him from taking a step. "Do not do something stupid, like defending my honor," she pleads quickly as she tugs on his wrist to get him to sit down.

He looks down at her with a frown, but takes a seat, much to her relief. He settles into his chair and places a glass of ice water in front of her. He takes a long drink from his before placing that down as well. He eyes her with a flat, even stare.

She takes a tentative sip of her water, but he continues his stare. She fidgets nervously and weaves her fingers together before breaking them apart. "What?" she questions.

Austin rolls his eyes. "We've been here—" he breaks off and looks down at his watch "—for barely twenty minutes and two jerks have already hit on you."

Ally deflates in her seat, her cheeks start to heat up embarrassingly. "I'm not _trying _to attract attention..." she promises with a wince.

"Do you want to leave? I want you to have fun, not fight off guys with a stick all night." The comment is supposed to be sarcastic, but they both hear the slight edge to his voice.

She placates him by gently resting a hand on his forearm. "No, no! We're already here so we may as well stay," she says softly. She hesitates briefly, as if she isn't sure whether she wants to say her next thought. "But, um, thanks, for stepping in with Richard... he was starting to make me uncomfortable," she adds quietly in a sincere and relieved voice.

His eyes soften with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for that. He's such a scummy asshole." He rolls his eyes. "I would've been there sooner but one of the higher-ups wanted to chit-chat," he grumbles.

She snickers as Austin's painfully bored expression comes to mind. "Your conversation with him looked riveting."

"I wanted to rip out my eyeballs and drop them into his drink."

"Oh man," she says with a wince.

Austin shrugs and looks at her with an arched brow. "You clearly had a way worse conversation with Dickhole."

"I cannot believe you actually call him that," she says with a small snort of incredulous laughter.

He scowls and rolls his eyes at her. "You've met him! You've talked to him! He clearly deserves it."

She shakes her head. "The fact that two guys have approached me this evening is much too bizarre," she murmurs.

"Three, if you count the window-licker back at the apartments," Austin slips in casually.

She laughs at that. "Three guys coming up to me _and_ the fact that I'm on a date? This is the most action I've got in _years!_" she comments jokingly, still laughing.

Austin looks at her with a wry smile. "It's only because you don't put yourself out there," he says pointedly. "I'm willing to bet that you use work and being tired as an excuse, don't you?" He pauses and studies her, her uncomfortable silence answering his question. "But if you actually went out and stepped outside of your comfort zone, I'm pretty sure there would be a line of guys outside your apartment," he murmurs as he fixes her with steady gaze.

Ally falters at his earnest words. She stares in shock, not sure what to do or say.

"I'd jump in that line..." he whispers, leaning in toward her.

Her brown eyes widen further and she actually forgets how to breathe for a moment. She's very aware of the pounding in her chest and the flurry of butterflies in her stomach.

"... if I wasn't doing anything that night," he finishes with a teasing smirk. He laughs at the myriad of expressions that pass through her face as his comment sinks in.

"Oh my God," she breathes, shoulders relaxing in disappointment and relief. "Don't scare me like that!" she huffs, smacking him on the arm.

Austin continues laughing at her and says, "Oh man, your reaction was priceless!"

"Hey, you actually do have a line of women lined up outside your apartment practically every night, so I don't know why you're making fun of me," she points out with a raised brow.

The laughing stops. He winces from the reminder. "I wouldn't call it a 'line of women', alright?"

"It may not be an orderly line, but you definitely have some semblance of a fanclub back home," she says dryly.

"It's not like I asked for it," he whines.

She bites her bottom lip, but snickers when he slumps over onto the table, burrowing his face into his folded arms in a pathetic fashion. A mournful noise erupts from the back of his throat. She lays a gentle hand on his bicep, about to tease him further when a booming voice fills the air around them.

"Austin Moon, my party is not that bad, you drama queen!"

Ally jumps and she snatches her hand away from him. Austin's head whips up to find his boss staring down at him with crossed arms and mock-serious look on his face.

"Hey, Jimmy," he greets as he starts to straighten up. "I showed up. I brought a lovely date. We're here. The party's nice. Can we go?" he rattles off tonelessly as he looks at his boss with a blank stare.

Jimmy laughs and moves to sit down next to Austin. "The party's barely started!"

Austin snorts. "It already feels like it's been too long," he grumbles under his breath, before taking a long drink of his water.

"You are not a very good friend," Jimmy states in a hurt tone.

"Jimmy, you know I love ya, but you throw a party practically once a month!" Austin scoffs. "Besides, Ally and I were gonna spend the day together," he says as he gives his boss a pointed look.

Jimmy blinks. "Ally?" His eyes dart to the brunette. She gives him a small wave and a shy smile, which he kindly returns. A look of realization dawns on the record label owner's face. "Ohhh... you were the one that picked up Austin's phone, huh?" he asks, a suggestive lilt to his voice as he smirks at the two.

"Yep, she was," Austin says with a wicked smirk.

"And you two were spending the whole day together, huh?"

"Baking cookies!" Ally jumps in with an embarrassed squeak. "We baked cookies and drank eggnog and decorated a Christmas tree!" she clarifies before his boss can assume anything too embarrassing from Austin's vague words. "That's all we did, promise."

Austin snickers and looks back to his boss. "Ally has a Christmas tradition that she likes to follow every year," he explains with a soft smile.

"Ah." Jimmy laughs and shakes his head. "Sorry for interrupting your tradition, then," he apologizes, and he actually sounds sincere. He gives them a toothy smile. "But I am glad to see you guys here!"

Ally beams at him. "It was nice of Austin to have invited me."

"You didn't even want to go at first," he reminds her. Since he's tactless, the question is loud enough for his boss to hear and he raises an eyebrow at the pair.

She elbows him harshly in the side and says sweetly, "This is a lovely party, Jimmy." She looks over to Austin expectantly.

"Lovely," he echoes with a loud grunt. His hand comes up to rub the area that's already bruising.

His boss gives a boisterous laugh as he claps a hand on Austin's shoulder. "I like her," he approves as he nods at Ally.

Ally shoots them a shy smile before she stares demurely into her lap, fingers fiddling together self-consciously. Austin laughs fondly, eyes focused solely on the brunette.

"Me, too, boss," he murmurs.

Ally's eyes widen at his words and her eyes snap up to meet his, but his attention is already back on his boss.

"Well, I've got to go mingle some more." Jimmy moves to stand up. "You two kids have fun."

"Nice meeting you!" Ally says genuinely with a wave.

"You go satisfy those mingle tingles," Austin calls playfully with a head nod.

And with a parting wave, the older man disappears into the crowd.

She turns to Austin with an excited smile. "I can't believe I just met Jimmy Starr! And he's so _nice!_"

He nods and gives her a toothy grin. "Jimmy's awesome. I love working for him."

She regards him curiously. "Your co-workers are a different story, aren't they?"

He rolls his eyes. "They just hate me because Jimmy and I are so tight and it's his record label. He usually asks for my opinion for anything before he asks anyone else." She looks at him patiently, clearly waiting for him to continue. "When I started out, a lot of people saw me as this dumb kid but when I was moving up faster than them, they kind of resented me. They're nice to my face because they don't want to upset Jimmy."

Her eyebrows shoot up. "They sound jealous," she summarizes.

"They just want to get close to him so he'll set them up on dates with models and actresses and pop stars," Austin snorts with another roll of his eyes.

Ally freezes at his words. "Does... does Jimmy set you up with women like that?" she asks quietly.

It suddenly makes sense, she realizes with a rapidly depleting heart, why he hasn't gone out with any of the girls back at the apartments; they clearly had nothing on famous celebrities.

He stills at the innocent question and idly wonders why things suddenly got so awkward. "He tries," the blond admits gruffly, shifting in his seat. "I don't usually go for it."

She stares at him suspiciously. "Maybe you're gay," she comments lightly.

"You're accusing me of being gay because I'm not shallow enough to date women based on how _hot _or _famous _they are?" he asks, his face expressionless.

She pauses and thinks over his words. "Okay, when you put it like that... it just makes you sound like a better person..." she grumbles under her breath.

To her surprise, Austin ducks his head and laughs quietly to himself. "Ally," he calls quietly once the laughter subsides. His head snaps back up so he can meet her eyes. He reaches out to her hand resting on the table and he taps the back of her hand with a finger before gently resting his hand over hers. "I can assure you, that you are way more awesome than any of the 'hot' or 'famous' women I've met, okay?" he says softly. His lips stretch into a lazy, but genuine, grin and his eyes flit back and forth as they search through hers.

She swallows nervously as she stares back, wide-eyed and speechless. Her stomach is doing front flips, back flips—heck, at this point, it's doing an entire gymnastics routine fit for the Olympics.

Ally tries desperately not to over-think and over-analyze his words, especially since she can barely admit her own crush on the blond to herself.

His eyebrow starts to raise and his grin just barely falters. "Uh, Ally? You okay there?"

She squeaks and nods mechanically. "Just great!" she shoots back, just a little too loud and high-pitched to be considered normal and sane. She inwardly groans at how crazy this guy can make her.

Austin smirks and gives her hand a quick squeeze before letting go. He watches her fiddle nervously with her hair once her hand was free. She focuses very intently on the ends of her hair as she twirls a wavy lock around and around her finger, a blush on her cheeks.

"How about some food?" he suggests after a long while. Because as adorable as she is when she's shy and embarrassed, he much prefers her when she's sassy and fighting back.

She pauses from playing with her hair and looks up at him as her shoulders finally relax. "I _am_ pretty hungry," she admits with a slow grin.

"Race ya to the buffet table!" he shouts childishly, already bolting out of his seat.

"Hey! No fair! Your legs are twice as long as mine!" she whines, trying to sprint after him.

* * *

Ally giggles into the back of her hand at another comment Austin makes about one of the people walking by.

"No, but really, his pants are pulled up so high, it looks like he's expecting a flood."

Her giggles turn into peals of laughter and he grins at her, pleased to know that he had caused that lovely sound. He watches her and finishes off his dinner with one last bite of mashed potatoes. Ally had been done with her plate for a while, but that was probably because Austin's plate held triple the amount of food on Ally's.

She calms down and shakes her head at him. "Okay, so the amount of ankle he's showing is pretty criminal, but look over there," she murmurs, pointing in the direction of an older woman that clearly had too much work done. "If she smiles, do you think her entire face would fall apart?" Ally whispers.

"That's probably why she gets so much work done, so she can keep rebuilding it when she does accidentally smile," he answers soberly. He watches the woman as she carries on a conversation with her tightly pulled back and scarily expressionless face. She held some comically high brows, making the upper half of her face look shocked while the rest remained eerily still. Even when she speaks, her overly plump lips barely part and her company seems to have trouble understand her. "I bet she drinks her water like this."

She turns her attention away from the woman and blinks at him, confused. "Like what?"

Austin carefully paints on a dull expression, lifts his eyebrows to appear surprised, and puckers his lips just ever so slightly in an uncannily accurate imitation of the overly done woman. He holds up his drink to his barely parted lips and tilts the cup into his mouth. When he pulls the cup away, the water dribbles from his mouth and back into the glass. It's really rather disgusting, but his expressionless face is what makes the whole thing absolutely hilarious.

A highly undignified snort leaves Ally's mouth as she doubles over in a roar of laughter. "That's disgusting!" she cries. Despite the complaint, she sounds thoroughly amused.

"What? What's so funny?" he mumbles through his closed, semi-puckered lips, still impersonating the woman.

Ally continues her laughing fit, a hand pressed to her mouth in a poor attempt to stifle the sound.

Austin drops the act and wipes the water from his mouth. "You okay?" he chuckles.

She shakes her head and she continues laughing as he watches her quietly. "Oh my God, I can't breathe," she rasps.

He laughs for a second and then looks thoughtfully into his glass. "I'm, uh, I'm going to get a new drink," he says with a wince.

She nods understandingly as he walks away with their plates and his drink in hand. When she has finally calmed down, she goes back to scanning the crowd for any more wacky characters worthy of commentary for Austin's return. But then something on the stage catches her eye and she turns to look at the singer calling for everybody's attention. Austin joins her with a new glass of water in hand as she eyes the stage curiously.

"What's going on?" she asks Austin as Jimmy walks up onto the stage.

Austin frowns and shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe an announcement or some kind of surprise?" He looks around as a crowd starts up front by the stage. "You want a closer look?"

She shrugs like _Why not?_ and they both get out of their seats and move closer to the stage to listen to what Austin's boss has to say.

Jimmy grins once he has the audience's rapt attention. "How about we pass the mic around for a bit, huh? I know some of you talented folks are dying to show off your lovely voices."

The crowd continues to applaud, albeit awkwardly, but nobody steps forward.

Ally claps politely and looks around, wondering who would be brave enough to be the first on stage. She turns to the blond. He isn't clapping and there's a set frown in place of his usual smirk.

Jimmy clicks his tongue at the crowd. "Oh, c'mon! No volunteers? Nobody's brave enough to step up first?" He gives an incredulous laugh. "Surely one of you wants to get up here?"

Again, nobody steps forward.

Austin stills and turns to her. "Let's go sit down," he suddenly says with an edge to his voice. He reaches for her elbow, holds onto her with a firm and steady grasp.

She blinks, about to go along with him, when Jimmy's voice booms into the microphone again. "Nobody wants to step up? Fine, then I'd like to volunteer a good friend and co-worker of mine," he calls out.

Austin's eyes widen. "Oh, shit." He ducks and moves to hide behind Ally's slim shoulders despite the ridiculous height difference. And width difference.

Ally raises an eyebrow as she cranes her neck to look over her shoulder and up at him. "This looks like an excellent plan," she snorts sarcastically.

"So, without further ado, Austin Moon, if you could, please come on up to the stage!" he calls into the microphone as he smirks out into the audience.

His shoulders cock themselves from hearing his name called out. "That son of a bitch," Austin mumbles under his breath, glaring vehemently at his boss.

A round of applause starts up to encourage Austin to show himself and Ally can practically hear the sighs of relief from having somebody else get called to sing first.

Ally laughs excitedly as she joins in on the clapping. "You better get up there," she grins toothily, elbowing him in the side. "Can't deny your boss," she teases with a click of her tongue.

He gives her a pained look as the people next to him start nudging and pushing him forward. "Okay, okay!" he growls, stepping out of the crowd. He plasters a smile on his face and makes his way up to the stage, grabbing the microphone from Jimmy's hand. His boss slaps him on the back and Austin gives an exasperated laugh at having been called to the stage.

"Good luck!" Jimmy calls laughingly as he makes his exit.

The blond claps his hands together and sighs resignedly. "Uh, any requests?" he asks into the microphone, a wry smile in place.

A couple of songs are shouted from various audience members. Finally, he hones in on a fun suggestion.

"Wham's _Last Christmas_, it is!" he cheers, pointing in the direction of the small, Asian woman in the back who'd shouted it in a deafening cry. She whoops triumphantly from having her favorite Christmas song picked.

From the audience, Ally cheers and claps along with everyone else as she watches Austin up on stage.

_Oh, this is too good..._

Her grin grows impossibly wider and she can't wait to hear his rendition of the popular Christmas song.

"Sorry, folks, just a minute." Austin turns around and gestures for the band to hold on for a bit. He spins back to the front and smiles out into the crowd. "I'd like to call my lovely date, Ally Dawson, up to the stage."

The toothy grin is wiped clean off her lips and the color drains from her entire face. "Oh my God," she breathes, and suddenly, she feels very, very faint.

"Let's give Ally a round of applause, everybody!" Austin grins and walks over to an extra stand, grabbing a second microphone for her. "She happens to be a bit shy," he says sympathetically, eliciting a small _Aww_ from everyone.

Ally gapes and gasps as a the people next to her grin and gesture to the stage encouragingly. A numb feeling of shock settles over her body as her legs slowly start to move toward the stage as enthusiastic clapping enters her ears. She makes her way up the tiny set of steps and meets Austin in the middle of the stage, looking absolutely terrified.

"What are you doing?" she hisses in panic as he casually passes a mic into her hand.

"Dragging you down with me," he whispers the familiar words into her ear. "You know how to sing, right?" he murmurs with a smirk.

Her fingers tighten around the mic in a death grip. "I do a bit of casual shower-singing, yeah," she confesses with a shaky nod.

"Awesome. You know the words to the song?"

She nods again and swallows thickly.

"Ready to start?" he asks, biting his lip in anticipation.

"No," she whispers to him. "Give me a moment." And then, into her mic, she says, "Hey, hey! Mr. Waiter-Guy? The one with the champagne? Could you please come up here for a second?" She nods when he looks around for a second before pointing uncertainly at himself. "Yep, I mean you, up front. Sorry for calling you out," she apologizes.

The bewildered waiter awkwardly makes his way to the front of the stage.

Ally walks up to the edge of the stage and smiles at him. "Sorry," she repeats as she kneels down to snatch a glass of the bubbly beverage with trembling fingers. She closes her eyes and downs the whole glass in one go, shocking the entire audience. It burns nicely on its way down her throat and she feels warmth and color come back to her cheeks. She gives a small hiss and shudders as she slams the empty glass down on the waiter's platter when she drains the last drop. "Okay, thanks," she says breathlessly as she gets up and shakes her hair out of her face.

The crowd quickly breaks out into a cheer as she moves to stand next to Austin once again.

"Ready," she says to him with a firm nod.

Austin looks at her, his eyes are shining bright with laughter and there's a very, very affectionate smile on his lips. "Thought you didn't drink?" he teases as his smile widens at her.

"I'm pretty sure this moment calls for an exception," she whispers back as she waves out to the crowd.

"Sorry for the hold up, guys! Ally needed some extra luck," he grins. He laughs and turns around to the band, giving them a nod to proceed with the music.

"But I'm all good now, ladies and gentlemen!" she cheers into her mic, still a wee bit nervous. The crowd lets out another roar of excitement for Ally and she chuckles at the sight.

The music starts up and Austin looks over to her and they lock gazes, identical smiles on their faces. He gives her a nod and she catches the cue, and when the timing's right, they both open their mouths to sing simultaneously.

"_Last Christmas_

_I gave you my heart_

_But the very next day, you gave it away_

_This year_

_To save me from tears_

_I'll give it to someone special_

_Last Christmas_

_I gave you my heart_

_But the very next day, you gave it away_

_This year_

_To save me from tears_

_I'll give it to someone special."_

Their voices blend together and Ally marvels at how well they sound. Somehow, it doesn't surprise her that he has knack for singing. She's willing to bet that all of his talents came naturally and effortlessly to him while growing up. He gives her an impressed smirk of surprise, as if to say he hadn't expected her to sing so well. She shrugs nonchalantly and smiles back, grateful for the small burst of courage from the champagne.

He gestures with a small head tilt for her to take the first verse and she nods understandingly. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a brief moment, before she fills the room with her soft, melodic voice.

"_Once bitten and twice shy_

_I keep my distance _

_But you still catch my eye_

_Tell me, baby_

_Do you recognize me?_

_Well..._

_If it's been a year_

_It doesn't surprise me_

'_Merry Christmas'_

_I wrapped it up and sent it_

_With a note saying 'I love you'_

_I meant it_

_Now I know what a fool I've been_

_But if you kissed me now_

_I know you'd fool me again."_

She takes a moment and looks over to Austin, only to find him staring at her in absolute adoration and complete awe. Her smile falters slightly and she gives him an expectant look. He shakes himself out of his stupor just in time for the refrain.

Their eyes lock as their voices harmonize perfectly like before. He pounds on his chest during 'heart' and spreads his arm out wide during the next line. She can't help but smile wider at his cheesy choreography. He moves toward her and she follows suit, her knees more than a little wobbly as his eyes never leave hers. They finish the refrain and she can't wait to hear him take over the next verse as he looks out into the mesmerized audience.

"_A crowded room_

_Friends with tired eyes_

_I'm hiding from you_

_And your soul of ice_

_My God, I thought you were someone to rely on_

_Me?_

_I guess I was a shoulder to cry on_

_A face on a lover with a fire in his heart_

_A man under cover but you tore me apart_

_Oh oh_

_Now I've found a real love, you'll never fool me again."_

She stares at him, wide-eyed as he finishes the verse. She's pretty sure he's just reduced all of the straight women in the crowd into oozing puddles of useless goo. He turns away from the swooning audience and smirks at her. Her heart feels like it's lodged itself in her throat as her eyes search through his illuminated ones.

It's time for the refrain one last time and she somehow manages to sing the words as he makes his way toward her again. She, however, stays rooted to the spot, unable to keep her eyes off his. They finish the last line and the words echo and bounce around the room as Austin comes to a stop in front of her in the middle of the stage, breathing rapidly as he looks down at her through thick, dark lashes. Her mouth drops a little from the heavy look he gives her and she swallows thickly.

They're both brought back to reality when two strong hands clap down on their shoulders, jolting them out of their cloudy daze. They both blink and look behind them to see Jimmy's toothy grin.

Ally awkwardly hands over her mic when Jimmy gestures for it politely. "Wow. Who's brave enough to go after that amazing act, huh?" he asks with a hearty laugh.

Ally blushes and a cocky grin appears on Austin's lips.

Jimmy grins down at them encouragingly. "You guys up for another song or two?" he asks.

The smirk on Austin's lips doesn't falter as he takes it all in, eyes scanning the crowd in front of them. He turns to Ally, still gaping in surprise at the ovation they've received. She's pretty sure she hears chanting for an encore.

"How about it, Ally? Wanna give them what they want?" he whispers breathlessly into her ear.

Ally blinks before turning to meet his soft, brown eyes. She gives him a timid smile and a casual shrug. "We're already up here, so why not?" she laughs cheekily, the sound echoing throughout the ballroom.

* * *

"Okay, okay! Let's have somebody else take the stage, alright?" Jimmy chuckles good-naturedly into the microphone. "But give it up one more time for their amazing duets!" he cheers, clapping and pointing to the pair.

"The lovely Ally Dawson, everybody!" Austin shouts, gesturing to her as she curtsies jokingly to the whooping and cheering crowd.

"And the always charming Austin Moon!" Ally laughs as she claps along with the audience while Austin takes a deeply exaggerated bow, complete with ridiculous hand flourishes. The sight makes her laugh even harder.

They've easily and effectively broken the ice, as a few hands have shot up for a go on stage as Jimmy turns back to the audience.

Austin waves out into the crowd. "C'mon," he murmurs into Ally's ear. "We better hurry off the stage before he changes his mind and talks us into another song." He quickly stalks down the steps, with her following close behind. He reaches the bottom first and extends a hand out to her.

She blinks at his hand, because while it's a nice gesture, she doesn't really need any extra support down the last two steps. She looks at the innocent, but expectant, expression on his face and gives a small, amused sigh as she tentatively places her own hand into his.

A wide grin breaks across his face while his grip tightens around her slender fingers and he watches her take the last two steps down until she meets even ground.

"Thanks," she says as she lets go, her hand flopping down to her side. She flexes her fingers subtly to try and rid her hand of the tingly sensation from Austin's touch. It doesn't work.

"You're welcome," he says politely. "You want to sit down for a while?"

She nods emphatically at his suggestion. "Definitely! I need a break after all that. And some water!"

He laughs and tells her to find a table so he can grab them new glasses of water. She agrees and finds a seat at an empty table. She has exactly four seconds to fan herself with a hand before she's suddenly surrounded by a group of gushing fans.

"You and Austin were simply fantastic!"

"Your voices were totally amazing."

"What a lovely performance."

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!"

"You two make a gorgeous couple, you know!"

Overwhelmed with the compliments, Ally can't do much more than thank them politely through her daze. But the last comment did manage to land a blush on her cheeks. She smiles and continues nodding and thanking them appreciatively while she waits for Austin.

They slowly start to slink away, once they've given the singer her deserved props, and Ally can finally breathe again when she's alone. Her eyes shift through the crowd as she idly wonders what's taking Austin so long. But then she sees that she wasn't the only one bombarded with compliments and praise, if Austin's confident smirk and occasional polite nod at passerby are anything to go by.

He finally makes it to the table and hands her her drink. She immediately starts gulping down her water while he promptly drains half of his as he takes a seat. He sets it on the table and lets out a satisfied sigh as he relaxes into the chair, throwing his head back against the top of the chair.

Ally sets down her drink and props her chin on the table, her cheek resting against her closed fist. "You alright?" she jokes with a grin.

His head lolls around to fix her with a curious smirk. "So. Where did you learn how to sing like that?" he asks, pointedly ignoring her question.

Her eyes widen from the unexpected question and her cheek slides off her tiny fist with a small jerk of her head. "Shower-singing," she squeaks, suddenly eying her glass of water determinedly.

He raises an eyebrow skeptically. "Shower-singing?" he echoes flatly. "You got that good from shower-singing?" he asks with disbelief.

She finally glances up to give him an exasperated look. "Oh, come off it. I'm not that good," she mutters embarrassingly.

Austin shakes his head vehemently. "No, you are. You really, really are," he says earnestly as he stares at her determinedly.

A bright red creeps up her neck, into her face, and spreads through her porcelain cheeks. "Thanks, Austin," she murmurs shyly as she slowly starts to smile at him.

A corner of his lips quirk upward into an adorable, lopsided smile and he shakes his head at her. "I can't believe you never told me you could sing." He gives her a cheeky look. "If I had known, I would have volunteered _you_ when Jimmy was asking for people to come up on stage," he laughs.

The color drains from her face as abruptly as it had come. She shakes her head in mild terror. "Oh God, no. I could barely handle that with you up there with me," she admits with a wince. "Piano recitals, I can do. Orchestra concerts, I can do. But singing on stage? Yeah, that was definitely a first for me."

His jaw drops and he looks at her, flabbergasted. "Allison Veronica Dawson!"

She raises an eyebrow bemusedly. "Still not my middle name," she comments under her breath.

He ignores her. "You've been hiding your voice away from the world for twenty-three years?" he bellows, sounding outraged.

Her eyes widen and she moves to shush him. "I didn't even know I had a good voice until tonight!" she hisses defensively.

He shakes his head and snorts. "I swear, I'm taking you to a karaoke bar as soon as one opens up after Christmas," he vows under his breath.

Ally doesn't know how to respond so she just rolls her eyes at him. "Fine, whatever," she concedes irritably, knowing that he would just wear her down until she agreed anyway. It would just save energy on both ends if she agrees up front.

And she could always make excuses and bail later.

Austin raises an eyebrow at her. "C'mon, it'll be fun," he says, his eyes softening at her.

She hesitates and bites at the corner of her lip as she thinks it over. Singing and sharing the stage with Austin had been rather exhilarating, truth be told. Terrifying, but exhilarating. And well, where else would she get a chance to get back up on stage with him in that manner? Besides, did she really want to turn down an offer to hang out with him?

Her honest answer kind of scares her.

"I guess... it does sound like it could be fun," she says lightly with a small smile. "Okay, okay. The karaoke bar as soon as it opens after Christmas," she agrees, much more enthusiastically this time around.

"Good."

Ally shoots him an affectionately proud grin. "You were really good up there, too." She smirks at him. "And judging from the way you worked that stage and Jimmy calling you out, it clearly wasn't your first time singing for an audience."

He freezes and she catches the guilt in his eyes.

"So how come you tried to avoid going up on stage?" she asks as she tilts her head to the side.

Austin groans and a hand immediately shoots up to rub at the back of his neck. "I don't know. I guess I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of you," he mutters shyly.

She looks at him in disbelief. "So you thought it would be a better idea to pull me up there with you?"

He grins at her. "I figured that I'd rather have you up there laughing at the both of us instead of standing in the crowd, laughing at just me," he admits.

"I wouldn't have laughed at you," she says with a shake of her head. "You were amazing up there," she says sincerely. "I'm pretty sure you induced swooning."

"From you?" he asks with a smirk.

"Couldn't afford to swoon, being up on stage," she counters smoothly, smirking right back at him.

Austin laughs. "I'm glad you got up there with me."

"I'm glad we didn't suck," she whispers back with a wink.

He laughs again and shakes his head at her. "We make a pretty awesome team."

"We are going to _own _at the karaoke bar."

"Indeed, we are," he smirks promisingly, raising his glass to her.

They _clink _their glasses together and take a long drink.

She hides her smile behind the lip of her cup and they lapse into a comfortable silence. She watches him as he turns his attention toward the stage. A quiet smile plays at his lips as he listens to the band start another song. She moves to take another sip of water when Austin suddenly turns back to her, same smile in place.

"Do you want to dance?"

She freezes at the question. She waits a beat before slowly lowering her glass. She holds up a hand and shakes her head at him. "Oh no, that's okay," she states politely. "I'd really rather not dance."

He gives her an offended look. "Ally! You can't turn down a dance."

Her eyebrows furrow. "I can't?"

He shakes his head. "Of course not! If we're at a party like this and there's dancing, it's only proper date etiquette for the gentleman—that would be me, if case you hadn't been taking notes—to ask his lovely lady—you, Ally, that's you; you're keeping up, yes?—to dance," he informs her in a scholarly tone.

"'Proper date etiquette'?" she repeats incredulously. "And thanks, by the way, for the reminders of our respective genders," she adds sarcastically.

"You're absolutely welcome."

She rolls her eyes. "I'm still not dancing, by the way," she repeats.

He masks his disappointment by quickly giving her a flat stare. "Ally, it's a slow song; there's not much dancing to a slow song." At her obvious hesitation, he rolls his eyes. "Fine, would you like to _sway_, then?"

"Sway?" she repeats skeptically with an arched eyebrow.

Austin nods with a slow smile. "C'mon. Come sway with me," he says enticingly. "Since you don't dance, apparently," he teases.

Ally blinks at his extended hand. She's about to decline for the third time—something about the third time being a charm, right?—but his eyes are glittering with determination and she knows that behind his carefree smirk, lies baiting remarks that will get under her skin until she gives in, anyway.

She deflates with a small sigh. "Oh, fine," she agrees at last. She reaches out and her fingertips graze across his waiting palm for a split second before their hands lock in a steady hold.

He leads her out onto the dance floor and he stops when he finds an empty space. He turns to her and places his free hand on the small of her back. She places a hand around the back of his shoulder and Austin's grip on her other hand tightens just enough to make her eyes dart to their joined hands and back up to meet his eyes.

He gives her a smirk and takes a half-step forward, eliminating what little space they had between them. Their bodies are flush together and she blushes from the contact. She tentatively leans her head against his upper chest.

"Now just... sway to my sway," he says simply. They move back and forth in time to the soft music and crooning singer.

About half-way through the song, he leans down and angles his lips close to her ear. "Well, would you look at that?" he mutters with a low chuckle. "You're quite the pro at this swaying thing," he says with a light smile.

She laughs softly at the teasing remark and pulls back to give him a slow smile. "Okay, this is pretty nice," she admits quietly. "Simple, but nice." He returns her smile and the warmth in his dark eyes makes her smile waver. With a nervous gulp, she quickly moves her head back to his chest so he won't see the blush adorning her cheeks.

"Yeah?"

She nods against his chest and closes her eyes. "But you know what would be even nicer?"

"What?" he asks.

"If you stayed quiet during the rest of the song."

The laughter that rumbles through his chest makes her smile.

"And stay quiet during the next song, too," she murmurs softly.

His laughter quiets. "I can do that," he whispers into her hair as his cheek rests gently against the top of her head.

And they stay, just like that, for a while longer.

* * *

After the second slow song ends, their swaying comes to a stop. They continue to stand, rooted to the spot, despite other couples wandering off the dance floor.

Ally doesn't make a move to step away and neither does Austin.

That, she supposes, is something. Mostly, she's just secretly happy that he doesn't seem to want to move, either.

"The music stopped," she observes bluntly.

A beat.

"I think the band's taking a water break," he murmurs in reply.

She thanks her mouth for ruining the moment. She going to have to staple it shut later as punishment.

"Ah," she manages weakly.

Ally tries not to feel too disappointed when Austin lifts his cheek away from her hair. She removes her head from his chest. They share a small smile before his hand falls from her back, her arm around his shoulder following suit.

She wonders if she's imagining the squeeze he gives her hand before letting go.

Despite her warm, cozy sweater and the perfectly balanced temperature of the ballroom, she's caught a sudden case of chills as she follows Austin back to their seats.

Surely, it can't be because she'd been wrapped up in Austin's tight embrace mere moments ago.

Surely, she isn't already missing the warmth and security of his arms.

Surely, somebody must have let in a draft.

* * *

"The party's slowing down," Ally says lightly when she takes a glance around room and notices that the guests have dwindled down significantly.

Austin's brown eyes narrow thoughtfully and he takes a minute to scan the ballroom. He sees Jimmy standing a few feet from the door, shaking hands with guests or hugging them good bye. "So it is," he nods.

Despite this being the perfect cue to leave, they continue sitting in their chairs at their table.

Yes, it's late, and yes, she's really rather tired, but no, she doesn't quite want to go home. At least, not yet. Going home meant the end to an awesome day. It meant the end to this date. It meant... well, it meant saying good bye to Austin for the night.

She realizes that's a tad ridiculous; she knows it's not like she'll never see him again. They were neighbors! What, with him being a few doors down from her own.

But still, she muses, she just wants to hold on to tonight for a little longer.

Austin turns to her with tired eyes. He fights back a yawn—she can tell from how his jaw twitches and he almost brings up a hand to his mouth—and she feels her heart drop.

He clearly wants to go home, she realizes as her heart continues its downward direction.

She doesn't let him ask; brings it up, herself, about going home. She uses the tired excuse so he doesn't have to put on a brave face for her.

He blinks. There's a pause and finally, he answers. "Alright," he says slowly. "If you want."

She's clearly more tired than she thought since she almost mistakes his tone for one of reluctance.

"Yeah," she murmurs, trying to sound cheerful. "I'm ready to go home." She sends him a weak smile. "You're tired, too, aren't you? Besides, there's no point in us staying here longer, right?"

He shifts in his seat, pauses longer than before. "No," he says roughly. "I guess not. The party's basically over," he finishes in a low voice. His fingers start drumming on the table as he appears thoughtful. "I'll be honest, though..." he starts, before trailing off. His fingers stop moving and his eyes jerk away from hers. Suddenly, he looks so shy. "I kind of don't want to leave," he coughs quietly.

She laughs, feeling lighter as her heart soars from his words. "Me, neither," she admits with a bite of her lip.

Austin quickly snaps back to look at her. "Yeah?" he asks hopefully.

She nods, a small smile starting to form. "Today's been the most fun I've had in ages," she says. "I'll be disappointed to see it end."

His shoulders relax and he grins at her. "Well, it's good that the feeling's mutual, I guess," he says. "I was kind of embarrassed because I thought it was only me," he tacks on with a relieved laugh.

She blushes. "Definitely not just you," she mutters, averting her gaze.

"So what's the plan?" he asks after a beat. "Sit here awkwardly until we're the last ones or leave and call it a night?

She wrinkles her nose. "Well, when you put it like that... maybe we should just head home?" He boos her and she rolls her eyes. "You want to stay here all night then?"

Austin gives his own sigh. "No, no. You're right. We should get going." He stretches with a yawn and gets up. He stands behind her and pulls out her chair.

She thanks him and he shoots her the charming grin that makes her stomach flip. He gently places a hand to her back, murmurs, "This way," into her ear and they start toward the coat check.

Ally glances up and sees Austin smiling down at her. She forces one of her own and focuses on moving forward.

She's already feeling the beginnings of disappointment sweep through her.

* * *

They step out of the elevator and begin their way down the hall in a comfortable silence. When they come to a stop outside his door, the silence becomes less comfortable.

"I had a good time," Ally pipes up, trying to fill the silence."At the party, I mean." She smiles at him when he turns his attention to her. "It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be," she confesses.

Austin sends her a relieved smile. "So did I, but I owe you for that one, Ally. Trust me, the only difference between last year and this year was bringing you. Seriously."

She suddenly finds her old boots from two seasons ago absolutely fascinating. "And, um, thanks, for spending all of Christmas Eve with me," she adds after she takes a moment to clear her throat. "You didn't have to, but it was sweet of you to come by."

His eyes soften and a genuine smile plays across his lips. "I wanted to spend it with you," he says earnestly. "So thanks for not shutting the door in my face," he adds playfully.

They stand there for a second, identical smiles aimed at each other, before he finally snaps out of it and scratches the back of his neck.

"It's getting late," she observes after a beat.

"Yeah, it is."

Their eyes dart around the hallway, because all of a sudden, they can't quite meet each others' glances.

He clears his throat. "So, uh, do you want me to walk you to your door?"

Ally shakes her head and holds up her hand. "Austin, it's fine," she insists with a light laugh. "I can make it the few feet by myself," she promises with a grin. He hesitates and she points down the hall. "It's right there," she says with a small laugh. "It's fine. Really."

He finally relaxes and gives her a small nod. "Alright," he concedes.

So they stand there, an awkward silence blanketing over them. Ally rocks back and forth on the balls and heels of her feet. Austin roughly shoves a hand in his pocket and dangles his keys in the other one.

Eventually, Ally clears her throat and once she catches his eye, she looks at him with a soft smile. She jerks a thumb behind her and says, "Well, um, I better go."

He blinks at her and opens his mouth. For a split second, she thinks he's going to tell her something—anything—but instead, he nods mechanically and plasters on a smile. "Right. Well, uh, see ya," he mutters with a small wave of his hand, his keys jingling slightly.

She forces her smile to widen so she can hide the mild disappointment in her eyes. "Bye," she says and it nearly comes out as a sigh. She turns around and heads down the hall, squashing down her growing disappointment as she gets closer and closer to her apartment door.

She makes it all of eight steps before she hears a shout.

"Wait. Ally, wait up!"

The startled brunette whirls around in confusion, seeing Austin hurrying toward her. He makes it over to her in about half the steps and comes to an abrupt stop in front of her.

"Yes...?" she sounds bemused and lets an inquisitive look grace her features.

He doesn't say anything, doesn't even open his mouth. He stands there, staring at her intently with dark, dark eyes, as a coy smile plays at his lips.

Just as his silence starts to unnerve her, his hand reaches up and brushes some hair over her shoulder. Her eyelids flutter and her stomach flops from the barely-there touch. She meets his gaze with her doe eyes and she swallows nervously, feeling her heart about to pound out of her chest. "What—what are you—?" she trails off, her voice a hoarse whisper.

He gestures above them with a small jerk of his head and looks at her through half-lidded eyes. "You happen to be standing under some mistletoe," he answers with a smirk.

Her eyebrows furrow and she glances up, notices a fire sprinkler hanging above their heads, instead of the supposed mistletoe. "What are you talking about? Austin, that's not mist—"

"Yeah, I really don't care," he interrupts with a low murmur. His hands come to cup the sides of her face, fingers just barely curling into her soft brown hair.

And then, in one swift, swooping motion, he's kissing her.

She smothers a small gasp of surprise and her eyes widen for a fraction of a second before they close. Her hands run up and over his chest and shoulders, until they're resting at the back of his neck, fingers threading through his short blond hair. She takes a moment to appreciate how truly soft it is as she stands on her toes.

She's the one that parts her lips first. He tilts his head for better access and his tongue deftly enters her mouth, effectively deepening the kiss.

He leaves one hand cupping the side of her face, thumb caressing her cheek, as he slides the other hand down the side of her body, and then across the small of her waist, pulling her up and even closer to his incredibly toned, lean body. The grip from his fingers tighten around the side of her body, and a small moan escapes from her mouth. And likewise, one rips from his throat when her fingernails start scraping along his neck.

Finally, he tears himself away for some air, but not before gently sucking on her bottom lip for a second or two.

"_Damn_." The word comes out in a ragged breath and he almost needs a moment to regain his composure.

Ally gulps down some much needed air the second he pulls away. She swallows thickly and sighs as she slowly lowers her body down his, no longer standing on tip toe. Her hands slide down as well and they rest on his muscular chest.

She doesn't know what to say because her mind is still spinning from his dizzying kiss.

Austin rolls his eyes at her as he straightens his back. With a wince, he starts rolling and cracking his neck. "God, you're so _short_," he snickers. But his thumb is stroking her cheek affectionately and his eyes are even darker than before as he continues to study her.

If her cheeks weren't already heated before, then that comment did the trick. "And you're a _moment ruiner_," she intones as she stares up at him.

Austin smirks. "Romantic moment under some fake mistletoe, right, sorry," he chuckles.

She wraps her arms around his neck and throws an incredulous look above their heads. "I wish I could I say that I'm into you for your smarts, but that's clearly not the case here," she sighs forlornly.

Not that she plans on ever telling him, but she does find it kind of adorable that he had used a fire sprinkler as an excuse to kiss her.

He shifts the hand on her cheek so he can run his thumb over the bottom of her lip. "I should just kiss you again, huh?" he asks with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

A solemn nod. "You probably should, you know, before you say anything else that might ruin this night."

"Clearly, you're the smart one in this fake relationship," he shoots back teasingly.

Ally arches a brow at him. "You're still talking about a fake relationship after that very real kiss?"

"Oh, it won't be fake for too long," he promises with a smirk, angling his lips toward hers.

"Good," she whispers back with a smile, letting her eyes drift close once again.

She gets back up on tip toes and their lips meet about halfway—Austin actually has to lean down a bit further to close the distance between them.

Austin breaks off the kiss fairly quickly and moves his hands to her hips. His thumbs slip under her sweater to run across the skin above the waistband of her jeans. "Maybe we should take this somewhere else," he mutters breathlessly. "Somewhere... that's _not_ in the middle of the hallway?" he suggests with an eyebrow raised high.

She bites her lip thoughtfully. "Your apartment or mine?" she asks curiously with an air of innocence, playing with the hair at the back of his neck.

"Mine's closer."

"Mine still smells like cookies."

Austin's eyebrows shoot up at the challenging look in her eyes and the smirk on her perfectly red lips. "Well, then," he mutters as he looks down at her. "Don't think I can beat that..." he trails off with a throaty chuckle.

"No, you probably can't."

"Lead the way, m'lady."


End file.
